Institute Makes an Impact
| Kemone Brown speaks about the Institute |
In June, Creating Resources for Empowerment and Action* brought their annual institute to Istanbul, Turkey. Sexuality, Gender and Rights Institute: Exploring Theory and Practice identified how human rights can be used to ensure justice and equality in the context of sexual and reproductive health, especially for women and adolescents.
Funding from Astraea supported participation of three activists: Kemone Brown, Ilay Ertetik and Selly Thiam. During the week of in-depth training, participants connected theory to their daily work, challenged each other and shared insights across region and religion.
Kemone Brown seeks to bring together feminists and LGBT activists towards a common cause. During Institute sessions, Kemone made frequent ties between the discussion content and her personal life and activism. She gave many examples from the local context of Jamaica, including the politics, laws, history and culture. She cautioned people not to simplify homophobic violence, but to examine the ties to social and economic justice, poverty and violence against women and children in Jamaica. Some days, she awoke at 4am to complete the reading material. Kemone is active in three organizations, Gays, Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Bisexuals Community; Jamaicans for Justice; and JFLAG (Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All-Sexuals and Gays), which is an Astraea grantee partner.
Ilay Ertetik is a Master’s student in Turkey studying the LGBT movement in the country, particularly political identity and human rights abuses against LGBT people. She volunteers with two organizations: the LGBT organization KAOS GL, a past Astraea grant recipient, and METU Gender and Woman Studies Community. Ilay took fellow participants out into the city in the precious free times and made everyone feel welcome and included. She plans to write articles about the Institute for her organization's publications and incorporate the knowledge she gained into her research on political identity.
Selly K. Thiam is a journalist from New York working in public radio and television who founded Astraea grantee-partner None On Record, a project documenting the stories of LGBT Africans on the Continent and in the Diaspora. Well-versed in civil rights, she expand her knowledge on human rights at the institute. Selly aims to advance LGBT rights through taking the None on Record concept worldwide by documenting the stories of LGBT people from the Global South and creating a web platform to share stories and work for policy and societal change.
*Based in New Delhi, Creating Resources for Empowerment and Action is a feminist international human rights organization that promotes, protects, and advances women’s human rights and the sexual rights of all people.
