MATCH International Women’s Fund

MATCH International Women’s Fund

Match International Women’s Fund is a grant-making organization that is devoted to financing grassroots organizations that support women rights and women right’s movements globally. Match International was founded by two Canadian women in 1976 in Ottawa, Canada. It achieves its goal of attaining gender equality through supporting initiatives identified by women and offering the necessary support to the group leaders in executing the ideas of uplifting women’s affairs. Some of the most renown activities of the Match organization activities include but not limited to the supporting of Colombian women who help survive domestic violence, and changing women in India from rag pickers to climate entrepreneurs (Match International, n.d.). Match international has managed to fund and support over 650 organizations that advocate for women’s right to bring about political, cultural, economic lasting change in 71 countries.

The Match International launched its first Canada’s international fund for women in 2013. The Match Fund was founded to channel funds to grassroots women’s organizations in the global south who ensure gender equality in the world. The organization addresses issues faced by women, goals, and transgender persons and offer local and innovative solutions depending on the context (Match International, n.d.). Different regions are faced by unique problems that hinder the women from achieving their goals, and grassroots organizations can work together with the locals to find local solutions. One success story is of an Indian woman who lives with vision impairment and has a goal of developing an app that could link women with impairments with caregivers. The Match organization adopted and supported her Idea through funding that helped her to start an organization that helps women with disability (Tomlin, 2019).

The organization works through donations from the government of Canada, individuals, and Corporate partners to run their activities and fund grassroots organizations. The organization has contributed to over $12 million investments that are meant to advance girl’s and women’s rights (Match International, n.d.). The organization ensures its transparency in its funds by providing financial highlights to the public on the non-profit organization’s report. The Match organization opens proposals grant demands to organizations that meet their requirements once a year and the grants range from 10,000 CAD to 20,000 CAD. The grassroots organizations communicate their needs directly to the fund’s staff to allow flexible funding. The Equality Fund is an initiative that was started by the Canada government, who called for a partnership that could promote gender equality in 2018 (Match International, n.d.). The match Fund joined together with other ten partners from different fields and areas of proficiency to form the Largest women’s Fund in the world. The Match Fund changed its name in 2019 to Equality Fund after the incubation of Equality Fund Partnership.

conclusion

Gender inequality and abuse of women’s right is an issue that is common in every society, including the ones in developed countries. The Match organization believes in securing the achievements that women have already realized as they aim at breaking into more success grounds. The society and the governments must give unconditional support to organizations that fight for gender equality and human rights to realize development across the board. The females, males, and transgender people have a right to receive equal treatments and be given equal chances to advance their goals in life. However, empowering a woman means empowering the society because their gender roles play a significant role in the family unit. Women empowerment has to cut across political, economic, and cultural perceptions that limit women’s progress and participation in society.