Community Action Fund for Women in Africa (CAFWA) works to empower women in conflict and post-conflict areas to rebuild their lives. Recognizing women as powerful agents of change in communities around the word, CAFWA is rooted in the conviction that women should be active stakeholders in defining their own development strategies. Our approach is guided by two key principals:
- Supporting existing, community-based programs is more likely to drive lasting change. In addition to making resources go further, we’ve found solutions from within, supported by the communities they serve to be most effective and enduring. By not re-inventing existing programs or intervening with constructs from the outside, we can reach more people with programs that are more effective.We identify initiatives that are already saving lives and rebuilding communities and provide resources so they can have even more of an impact. Sometimes it’s a loan. More often it’s an ox to work a field; or kiln to bake bricks; or a well for a tree nursery.
- Simultaneously addressing a spectrum of challenges that face a community creates synergy and makes our work much more effective. We believe the threats and obstacles to a thriving community are interconnected and by improving one aspect of an individual’s life you increase the changes of improvement in other areas. For example, training and education can dramatically increase the return on micro-financing dollars; making improvements to the environment and increasing access to food can give traction to health-related interventions.
