Our Legacy

Four decades of advancing gender justice

Forty years ago, the women who founded MADRE saw the future we all deserve: a world where women, girls, and all people who are marginalized fully participate in shaping policies and decision-making, their expertise and leadership is recognized and upheld, and they equitably hold power and resources within their communities. They created MADRE as a vehicle to take us there.

Since our founding, MADRE has built solidarity-based partnerships with grassroots movements in more than 40 countries, working side-by-side with local leaders on policy solutions, grantmaking, capacity bridging, and legal advocacy.

This year, as MADRE celebrates our 40th anniversary, we carry that legacy forward and continue our work fostering a world of racial, gender, climate, and disability justice.

1980s

MADRE started working in Guatemala in the 1980s. MADRE responded to the needs of survivors of the brutal genocide of Indigenous communities during the Guatemalan Civil War. Now, that work continues with our partner organization MUIXIL.
1990s

In Haiti, in the 1990s, we amplified the voices of survivors of sexual violence, provided the first women’s health clinic, and stocked supplies to 3 clinics. We continue that work today with our partner, the Haitian Women’s Collective.
2000s

We began work with Afghan communities following the 2001 US military invasion of Afghanistan. MADRE launched a campaign called “Justice Not Vengeance,” which provided humanitarian relief to Afghan women and families. Our work in Afghanistan remains expansive.
2010s

Since its formation nearly twenty years ago, the legal understanding of gender-based persecution has never been tested. In 2018, MADRE co-hosted several convenings to discuss the proposed crimes against humanity treaty. Today, the drafting process is still moving, and there have been substantive debates and negotiations.
Present

This is our legacy. And we will carry that legacy forward, ever closer to a world of racial, gender, climate, and disability justice. We’ll prevent the next wars and support women peacebuilders helping their war-torn communities heal. We’ll create new protections to end gender violence. And we’ll do it for the next forty years, and beyond.

April 24: MADRE Speaks Legacy (An Open Mic)

Forty years ago, the women who founded MADRE saw the future we all deserve: a world where women, girls, and people who are marginalized fully participate in shaping policies and decision-making, their expertise and leadership are recognized and upheld, and they equitably hold power and resources within their communities. They created MADRE as a vehicle to take us there.

Since our founding, MADRE has built solidarity-based partnerships with grassroots movements in more than 40 countries, working side-by-side with local leaders on policy solutions, grantmaking, capacity bridging, and legal advocacy.

For MADRE Speaks Legacy (An Open Mic), we’re honoring the vision of activists, artists, poets, educators, leaders, and more that has brought us to this moment.

Tell us: What legacy are you honoring? What legacy are you starting?

Event Details
Saturday, April 27th
6:00 pm – 10:00 pm ET
Starr Bar, 214 Starr St., Brooklyn, NY
Performer Sign Up Form
May 1-3: Feminist Peace Summit

Global feminist leaders are convening a Feminist Peace Summit in the face of intensifying militarization and climate devastation all over the world. The gathering seeks to reorient US policymaking away from militarism and endless wars toward an ethic of human security grounded in justice, peace, and ecological sustainability. The event will bring together activists, academics, policymakers, philanthropists, and other key allies for several days of plenaries, breakout workshops, training sessions, and art-based political education.

Registration for in-person attendance is closed, but you can still register to attend virtually.

Impact Stories

We work with our grassroots partners to prevent future crises and build communities that thrive. With them, we can address root causes holistically through funds that supply crucial resources, advocacy that builds stronger feminist policies, and capacity bridging that enables partners to learn tools and techniques from other activists and leaders around the world.

Colombia

When decades of armed conflict came to an end in Colombia, the initial implementation of the Peace Accords threatened the lives and rights of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous Peoples, particularly women and girls. MADRE and our partner, Proceso de Comunidades Negras, brought grassroots leaders from these communities into the peace process through advocacy and organizing, ensuring their perspectives were included.

Learn more about how MADRE confronts war & authoritarianism

a Syrian mother walks with her four children a top a hill overlooking a refugee camp

Palestine

In early 2023, the Israeli government escalated violence in occupied territories, raining bombs, tear gas, and gunfire on Palestinian neighborhoods. Thanks to our supporters, MADRE was able to supply Palestinian communities with the funds they need for emergency medical treatment and mental health support.

Learn more about MADRE's emergency humanitarian aid

"we need to organize all communities and we need to raise the consciousness of everyone regarding these issues...I'm happy to see where MADRE is going with it's global perspective, because we are all connected on this planet."
Digna Sanchez, founding board member and former Director of Programs at MADRE. Digna was one of the many activists, artists, teachers, poets, and health professionals who helped build our guiding principles in 1983.

-Arline P, MADRE Community

"With immense gratitude and pride, as a woman, in the stand you have taken, I send my love to you, as my spiritual sisters. This is a superb initiative, and one that makes a difference in the state of the world."

1/5
-Kathy Engel, Poet and Founding Executive Director

"We asked the Nicaraguan women, well when we get back to the United States, what should we tell the women? They said, please tell them that we see them as sisters, that we know if you get together and work together and develop a plan, a campaign, that we will have peace. That's why we started MADRE."

2/5
–June Jordan, Poet

“MADRE, which is the most effective international agency for peace and justice centered on the lives and the needs of women and children in the world today.”

3/5
–Toni Morrison, Writer

“MADRE is one of the most exciting things to happen in the last few years. Women coming together, crossing boundaries of age, race, culture, in order to change the world. It's high drama, and it's extremely urgent.”

4/5
-Jessica B, MADRE Community

"MADRE’s contribution to the furthering of equality, protection and assistance to women and children greatly restores my hopes in a more peaceful, tranquil world…"

5/5