Home

About Us

Who was A.J. Muste?

Publications

Grants

Sponsorships

The Muste Building

Support Us

Contact Us

En Español

Support the Adalys Fund
More about the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute
Adalys Vázquez Solidarity Travel Fund Requirements
En español: Sobre el Fondo Solidario de Viajes "Adalys Vázquez"

Next application deadline:
** Since 2012, the Adalys Fund has been temporarily suspended for lack of resources. Updates will be posted on this page. We apologize but we lack the capacity to respond to your inquiries or applications. **

What is the Adalys Vázquez Solidarity Travel Fund?
This fund seeks to support groups and organizations representing the social movements of Latin America, the Caribbean and indigenous America–especially grassroots base-level organizations of campesinos, indigenous peoples, women, unionists, human rights activists, etc.--by providing grants to allow them to travel to meetings, forums or other events, geared toward coordination or training, on a local, national, regional or international level, with the goal of allowing and ensuring their participation in the movement of global resistance.

Who finances the Muste Institute and the Adalys Fund?
The Muste Institute was founded by activists, not donors; we depend on solidarity from the public to carry out our programs supporting nonviolent action for social justice. The first donations that started the Adalys Fund in 2007 came from a donor who has also sustained, since 1997, the Muste Institute's NOVA Fund, which supports active nonviolence in Latin America. In 2010 this donation will run out or be drastically reduced, and we must rely on solidarity from all of you to keep the Adalys Fund going.

You can donate to the Adalys Fund online here: https://ajmuste.org/donate (designate your gift for the Adalys Fund) or send a check (drawn on a U.S. bank) to the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012 (write Adalys Fund on the memo line). If you can't donate, you can still help us build a broad base of support by distributing information about the Adalys Fund and the Muste Institute to all your contacts.

Inspired by the principles of indigenous reciprocity, we ask the groups that benefit from the Adalys Fund to support us by spreading the word about the Fund, and by raising money from their community to cover an important part of their trip expenses, leaving more resources available in the Fund to support other groups. We publicly recognize these solidarity gestures from the grassroots as donations to the Adalys Fund, with the hope of inspiring others to step up and donate to the Fund.

Who controls the Adalys Fund?
The A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, based in New York (USA) is responsible for the administration of the Adalys Vázquez Solidarity Travel Fund. Decisions about the applications are made by a committee of at least six activists from different regions of the Americas: Andes, Southern Cone, Brazil, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Who was Adalys Vázquez?

Adalys Vázquez, 1963-2009

Adalys Vázquez Ramírez was a Cuban activist and founding member of the Travel Fund Coordinating Committee who committed her life to the struggle for social justice. On March 16, 2009, Adalys lost her battle against cancer at the age of 45. Since 1992 she had worked at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center in Havana, Cuba, encouraging participation in campaigns and networks against free trade, the debt, militarization and war. She was also a lay leader and popular educator in the Baptist church.

We named the fund for Adalys to honor the memory of our friend, and for the many women activists who dedicate their lives to social justice without getting recognition for their contributions; their labor too often disappears behind a veil of invisibility. We resist this invisibility for Adalys and for all the grassroots activists, especially women, who benefit from our travel grants.

Adalys Vázquez Solidarity Travel Fund Objectives:

1. To contribute to the strengthening of grassroots organizations and social movements in Latin America and the Caribbean, facilitating their participation in national or international forums, seminars and meetings.
2. To contribute to the strengthening of alliances and joint strategies among organizations and social movements, toward the creation of networks and other spaces of interaction.
3. To contribute to the training and empowerment of organized women and men from grassroots sectors, so that they can develop leadership that favors the coordination and enrichment of local practices with national and global perspectives.

CRITERIA AND REQUIREMENTS:

What kind of grants does the Adalys Vázquez Solidarity Travel Fund make?

• Only to cover the costs of local, national, regional or international travel (preferably within Latin America and the Caribbean) for meetings. The Adalys Vázquez Solidarity Travel Fund doesn't make grants to organize meetings or other events. (The A.J. Muste Memorial Institute has other funds for other kinds of support; see http://ajmuste.org/ajgrants.html for information.)
• The maximum grant amount is $1,500. Because we receive so many applications, we often end up granting less than the full amount requested.

Who can apply for a grant?

• Grassroots social organizations, movements, networks, collectives or groups. The people seeking support must be designated by the group, and be an integral and committed part of the group. We don't accept individual applications that are not supported by an organization.
• People and organizations from the geographic and cultural area of Latin America and the Caribbean, or Indigenous America (Abya Yala).
• Organizations with a demonstrated commitment to democratic values and nonviolence, the objectives of social change and social justice, and respect for human rights. The organizations seeking funding should be known for their work, or present two references from known organizations.
• Grassroots groups with modest resources and little or no budget for travel, and difficulties accessing other sources of funding. We do not make grants to NGOs that have access to other funds or have a significant budget of their own.
• Groups that demonstrate in their structure and functioning a commitment to gender equality, democratic participation, the sharing of authority, rotation in decision-making positions, and training and empowerment of their members at all levels, not only among the leadership.
• Our priority is to support base-level women activists and groups that normally have fewer opportunities to travel and participate in meetings (indigenous, African-descended, youth, minorities, etc.). We don't support proposals where the traveling delegations are made up of fewer than 30% women, in the case of a small delegation, or 40% women in the case of a larger delegation.
• We don't accept more than one application from the same organization to participate in the same event. An application can be for a collective trip, for more than one person, but the maximum grant amount for each application is still $1,500.

When can you apply for a grant?

** Since 2012, the Adalys Fund has been temporarily suspended for lack of resources. Updates will be posted on this page. We apologize but we lack the capacity to respond to your inquiries or applications. **

How do you apply for a grant?

** Since 2012, the Adalys Fund has been temporarily suspended for lack of resources. Updates will be posted on this page. We apologize but we lack the capacity to respond to your inquiries or applications. **

Reporting requirements:

• Groups that receive grants must report their expenses using a form provided by the Adalys Vázquez Solidarity Travel Fund that includes a brief evaluation of the usefulness and significance of the trip.
• Reports must be sent in no more than three months after the trip has been completed. All expenses must be duly documented and receipts must be presented.