The organization that created The MATCH International Women’s Fund is called MATCH International. In 1976, two Canadian women created Canada’s first international organization to place the issue of women’s rights and empowerment as central to successful and sustained development in the global South. Inspired by the women they met at the United Nation’s First World Conference on Women in Mexico City the year before, Dr. Norma E. Walmsley and Ms. Suzanne Johnson-Harvor created MATCH International to MATCH the needs and resources of Canadian women with the needs and resources of women in the global South.

From the beginning, the focus of MATCH International has been to endorse the initiatives identified by women in the global South, and support their leadership in executing their ideas about women’s rights and equality in the developing world. With the help of loyal supporters from across Canada, MATCH International has worked with over 650 women’s organizations in 71 countries to advance women’s rights and bring about lasting change.

In October 2013, MATCH International launched Canada’s first international fund for women – The MATCH International Women’s Fund. The MATCH Fund was created as the most direct way to get money and resources into the hands of women’s rights organizations working at the grassroots level. It provides grants to local women’s organizations in the global South that are Holding Ground and Breaking Ground for a more equal world.

What they do:

They’re all about homegrown solutions to the issues that women, girls, and trans* people face. They dream of a world where there are more solutions to these barriers than there are barriers.

But they don’t have the solutions. And they don’t need to.

Why? Because the brave women, girls, and trans* folks working at the grassroots level have the solutions. And they are innovating every day within the most restrictive contexts.

They are:

• - The women in Colombia who work their mortal magic as “anti-violence fairies” for survivors of domestic violence;
• - The 12-year-old girls high up in the mountains of Nepal who have formed clubs to refuse marriage and stay in school;
• - The migrant women in Argentina who pitch pop-up human rights tents to spread the word about the resources available to migrants like themselves;
• - The filmmakers in Georgia who had the guts to keep the cameras rolling when an angry mob attacked LGBT activists in the street. Then these brave women used the footage to make the first documentary about homophobia in the country;
• - The women in India who confronted trash mafias to build a social enterprise that turns women “rag pickers” into Kolkata’s fiercest climate entrepreneurs.
• - Grassroots organizations like these might have all the solutions. But there are two things they definitely don’t have: money and visibility.

That’s where they come in. They’re an international women’s fund (the only one in Canada) working at the intersection of women’s rights and innovation. They fund grassroots women’s rights organizations that are Holding Ground and Breaking Ground for women’s rights. And they’re committed to sharing their stories as they dismantle barriers, challenge perceptions, and find solutions to the world’s biggest problems.

How do they do it? (That’s where you come in.) Your donations. They channel your dollars directly to the girls boxing in the slums of Nairobi, the underground network of LGBT folks in Kampala, and the women taking hospitals to task in Xalapa.

First you use your power for good. Then they use their power for good. Then the women, girls, and trans* folks on the ground use their power for good.

It’s the stuff solutions are made of.