Young Feminist Groups Weathering the Storm of COVID-19

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, feminist activists at Sierra Leone-based organization Purposeful and others in various locations set up the Global Resilience Fund in order to meet the needs of young women and girl groups organizing in response to the pandemic. They released a report about a year later, in mid 2021, titled “Weathering the Storm” which highlights the voices and perspectives of the feminist activists and demonstrates just how they tackled organizing in a difficult and constantly shifting context.

The Global Resilience Fund, now a Channel grantee partner, is a rapid-response participatory funding initiative launched by Purposeful with the aim of providing resources to girls and young feminists responding to the pandemic. “Weathering the Storm” represents the journey of this fund thus far by drawing on case studies of young feminist-led groups, first-hand reflections, and contributions that demonstrate the reality of organizing in and after a pandemic. In sharing their lessons learned through this report, Purposeful hopes to contribute to future efforts to model feminist partnership and inclusive rapid-response resourcing.