7th Spark and Ignite Award Winners Announced!

Posted 19 December 2017 in EMpower News, Grantee Partner News   |   Share

EMpower is proud to announce the winners of the 7^th Spark and Ignite Awards!

This year’s focus was on the engagement of boys and young men as champions for gender equity. 12 phenomenal grantee partners submitted applications that were reviewed by a panel of EMpower staff and donors, using agreed upon criteria. The 8 winning organizations' innovative ideas engage boys as allies to promote equitable gender relations, and included girls in the design of the program proposal.

The organizations awarded Spark and Ignite are:

Centro Yanapanakusun, Peru: Yana will support four youth leaders from its Casa de Cultura to address gender-based violence and lack of respect between boys and girls with a group of boys in Puno, Peru, through interactive workshops and radio programs.

Alternativa Centro de Investigación Social y Educación Popular, Peru: Alternativa will work with a group of male secondary students in Lima, Peru, to explore issues related to gender inequality and through participatory research, develop awareness raising campaigns (videos and flyers) to promote gender equality and speak out against gender-based violence in their schools.

Acción y Desarrollo, Peru: Acción y Desarrollo will work with a group of male secondary students in Lima, Peru, to combat abusive dating relationships and sexual violence, and promote more equitable distribution of chores betweens boys and girls.

Tiempo de Juego, Colombia: Tiempo de Juego will work young men in Soacha, Colombia, to creatively engage young people through sports, music and technology in supporting women’s rights. These young men will work to positively impact social media outlets that often demean women by developing social media content (music videos, Facebook posts) to promote the rights of girls and young women.

Galaxy Fund, Russia: Galaxy Fund will organize multiple events and activities in the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad regions to engage boys to rethink their traditional views on girls. Girls and boys will work together in theater classes to create videos challenging gender stereotypes.

Urbanet, Ghana: Urbanet will work in the Sagnarigu district of northern Ghana to hold drawing competitions as a tool for boys to change their views of girls’ roles in society and the home. They will appoint ‘Gender Equity Champions’ and ‘Ambassadors’ to encourage their peers to support girls and report abusive behavior.

Onda Solidaria, Brazil: Onda will empower youth leaders from the community of Santana do Deserto, Minas Gerais to use sports and athletic activites to stimulate conversatios around identity, gender and social exclusion, and to break hyper-masculine stereotypes.

East Bali Poverty Project, Indonesia: EBPP will hold after-school classes in the village of Ban, East Bali that will focus on gender and anti-harassmnet. They will design a mock TV show where girls will be able to express their own stories of harassment for the boys.

The awards are $12,000 each for 12 months, allowing time to test and assess new approaches, all unrelated to their regular program grants from EMpower.

Congratulations to the winners! A huge thank you to all who applied, as well as our donors for being involved in the review process!

The EMpower Spark & Ignite Award intends to inspire and enable strong grantee partners to “think outside the box” and experiment with a new idea or approach that will create more opportunities, agency or skills for adolescent girls.