Global Reach: Grantee Partners

Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action (CREA)

Context:

The sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHRs) of women are concepts of human rights that focus primarily on women’s sexuality and reproduction. The rights state that women should have the right to live freely without coercion, violence or discrimination, and that women should have control of their own SRHRs. According to the Beijing Conference on women held in 1995, women should have the right to be free from torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, the right to be free from all forms of violence and the right to privacy. Studies that reveal that over 67% of India’s 355 million girls and women of reproductive age experience various negative Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) outcomes such as poor menstrual hygiene, early and closely spaced pregnancy, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted infections (STI’s), and sexual violence. The issue of reproductive health rights of adolescents, under-age marriage, and adolescent pregnancy within and outside marriage remains a policy blind-spot in India. Adolescent girls rank the lowest in terms of awareness about sexual health, family planning methods, and their rights. There is a huge need to combine life skill training with SRHR education to enable girls to access not only SRHR services but also to build their capacities to make life choices related to education, livelihoods and health.

Organization:

CREA was established in 2000 in Delhi with a mission to advance women’s human rights, including reproductive rights, violence against women and sexuality. Through grassroots leadership development, technical assistance, and advocacy and research, CREA works to move the needle for women in the South Asia, with a focus on India. To ensure their training curricula and research results reach the largest audience, they publish materials in English and Hindi and other local languages - many geared toward low-literacy audiences. CREA is known within India and internationally as a path-breaking organisation for advocating sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). They conducted an international conference in Nepal in April 2019 which saw a gathering of over 500 leaders from more than 50 countries. CREA’s ‘Count Me In – It’s My Body’ (IMB) initiative seeks to address violence and discrimination against females (including child marriage and sex-selection) through community level awareness-raising, door to-door campaigns, art and performance.

Current Grant:

EMpower’s Sunset Grant (8th grant) will support CREA in two broad areas: a) Leveraging CREA’s expertise in SRHR and building/strengthening capacity of four EMpower’s grantee partners in India through a mentorship and training program; b) developing inclusive research and undertaking dissemination in local languages for SRHR practitioners and trainers in grassroots organizations working on leadership, human rights gender and sexuality. CREA will also utilize a portion of this grant for COVID response and recovery. Apart from the medical kits and accessories like masks, sanitizers, PPE kits and medicines, CREA will develop resources in local languages with important helpline numbers for COVID consultancy, contact numbers of empanelled counsellors and therapist for mental health supports, myth busting statements around vaccination and COVID. 

Primary Location: Delhi

Website: http://web.creaworld.org/

Funded Since: 2012

Grantee shoutouts!

EMpower Awards $321,500 in Six Grants to Partners in Asia

Posted 07 June 2021

Young people’s stories leave a lasting impression on EMpower supporters during trip to India

Posted 14 February 2020

Grants totaling $333,000 approved at EMpower’s Summer Grants Meeting in Hong Kong!

Posted 07 June 2019