What are some of the funding trends affecting Indigenous women in Latin America?
MA: The FIMI and AWID put forward a methodology for the session using the framework of “learning from experience.” It included plenary discussions, group work, utilizing the learning spiral technique, and conducting a brief evaluation for the closing. The gathering was co-facilitated by Natalia Sarapura, an Indigenous leader from Argentina; Cecilia Umul, FIMI’s Program Officer for Guatemala; Lydia Alpizar, AWID’s Executive Director; and myself. Principal areas of funding identified included community initiatives such as bake sales, tortilla sales, cash collection, craft sales, and fruit sales mostly in the form of cooperatives. Indigenous women were able to recognize that the key to their sustainability strategy has been being having the capacity to cultivate and manage resources from their own communities by involving all actors. Indigenous women participants at the session reinforce FIMI’s notion of philanthropy, which clearly differentiates between charity or subsistence aid and emp
