“We have thrived even at the darkest and most challenging times of our existence by surviving the pandemic. We commit to continue, we commit to hope, and we commit to rise above the situation. Most of all, we commit to develop a community where inclusion is not a right, we have to work for but a right duly recognized.”
Grantee partner from Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APLHIV) in Laos shares a joke with a rightsholder.
context but also the tenacity and adaptability of grant- ee partners and rightsholders. While chasing closures, the Voice teams also launched the first calls for propos- als under the extension phase. This included the roll- out of the NOW-Us! Awards to celebrate innovation in inclusion in 6 Voice focus countries, the start-up of the Empowerment Accelerated ‘graduation’ grants, a joint call for proposals with ROOM in Kenya and Tanzania to support innovative initiatives that explore how right- sholders experience freedom at the crossroads of faith and feminism, a call for proposals to support creative projects that will encourage artists and rightsholders to use arts as a tool for activism in Indonesia, among a host of others. Linking and learning continued to connect, outgoing and incoming, grantee partners and rightsholders in numerous events and platforms, enabling new ideas and joint actions to emerge. Throughout the height of the pandemic, information about the facts, the impact and the individual experiences of support and resil- ience were shared via the WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages and other Voice platforms. Peer to peer capacity strengthening as well as creative joint campaigns is a growing part of linking and learning- online, face2face or hybrid.
In some way, grantee partners have become more appreciative of the added value of linking and learning with other organisations, they have become more visible to each other. It has created another space for the rightsholders, grantee partners, and Voice to do business unusual—to let go of the fear of not being in control or structured and to embrace trying out things which may be new. As Shilla Adyero, from Lutino Adunu in Uganda shared: “I feel that with linking and learning, it gives you the opportunity to reflect but also learn from other people and in that process, you also grow by being able to re- check your approaches to development.”
EXCERPT FROM THE LARGER STORY WOVEN BY VOICE IN THE PHILIPPINES LINKING & LEARNING FACILITATOR YGOAL, BASED ON SHARING BY GRANTEE PARTNERS ABOUT THEIR VISION FOR THE VOICE IN THE PHILIPPINES COMMUNITY, BEYOND VOICE.
Hope is a powerful thing Voice dedicates this report to the vibrant and powerful civil society movements the world over, who are mobi- lizing and advocating relentlessly for a just and equal present and future. From resisting violence against women with albinism in Uganda and supporting com- munity environmental defenders to protect themselves against reprisals in Madagascar, to setting up a cooper- ative welfare fund for informal women workers in Laos and truth telling efforts to convey the experience of survivors of human rights violations in Aceh and Timor Leste through video documentaries in Indonesia. Rightsholders and grantee partners of Voices contin- ued to fan the flames of equality, solidarity, community
and justice amidst a second pandemic year. You give us hope and we hold you in deep gratitude. 2021 was a crucial bridge year for Voice. It marked the end of phase 1 (2016-2020) and the start of the exten- sion phase (2021-2024). As a result of this continuing journey as well as the plans we could not fully realise, we defined 2020 as the year that was (un)finished. In 2021, we made our best efforts to finish phase 1. This effort was met with immense challenges as the pan- demic continued to rise and subside the world over, in- cluding in the Voice focus countries. Movement restric- tions and other public health measures continued to affect daily life, delaying or changing grantee partners’ finalisation of their projects. At the end of 2021, Voice honoured 205 requests for amendments to the total of 395 grant agreements from phase 1. This is evidence not only of the practical challenges of administering grants and managing projects in an unprecedented
We are proud to present to you Voices (Un)told. The beginning of the journey in this new phase of Voice.
4
5
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker