Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action

The Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) is a nongovernmental organization that advocates for women's rights and empowerment in the Caribbean. The regional network, which serves as an umbrella organization for progressive feminist groups in over a dozen countries, is based in Castries, St. Lucia.[1][2][3]

CAFRA logo
The Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) is a regional feminist network.

History

CAFRA was founded in Barbados on 2 April 1985.[4] Its founders included Peggy Antrobus, Joan French, Rawwida Baksh, Honor Ford-Smith, Sonia Cuales, and Rhoda Reddock.[5] The organization was formed in response to both the wave of feminist activism in that period and the discomfort some women felt in the leftist political groups of the day. As one of the group's founders wrote in 2007:

"While there was official acceptance of women’s equality in these organisations, they were in actuality patriarchal structures, with strict hierarchies and few women in leadership positions. Feminist-oriented ideas in these spaces were dismissed as ‘bourgeois,’ ‘foreign’ and, as a result, ‘irrelevant’ and potentially divisive."[6]

CAFRA was the first regional women's organization that called itself "feminist".[7] Its most active period was the late 1980s and the 1990s, although it remains a significant player on women's issues in various Caribbean countries.[7]

Structure

CAFRA was based in Trinidad and Tobago for many years and is now based in St. Lucia.[4][3] Though it is based in the English-speaking Caribbean, it covers all linguistic areas of the region; it is known as the Asociación Caribeña para la Investigación y Acción Feministas in Spanish and the Association Caraïbéenne pour la Recherche et l'Action Féministe in French.[8][4]

The organization currently includes representatives from 17 constituencies: the Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, the Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S Virgin Islands.[9]

A general meeting is held every three years, with a regional committee and continuation committee that meet annually.[4] It is overseen by a coordinator, of which there have been four in the history of the organization, beginning with Rawwida Baksh. The most recent coordinator is Flavia Cherry.[10][11][6]

There is also a CAFRA Youth League, which has branches in various countries.[12][13]

CAFRA's active membership has primarily been Afro-Caribbean, although its members have worked to include Indo-Caribbean and other perspectives.[6]

Work

CAFRA aims to promote women's ability to effect change in society, to fight oppression, and to "serve as facilitator of the regional women's movement."[4]

Its work has included research and advocacy on violence against women, gender bias, women and the environment, women and agriculture, and women and the law.[10][11][14][15][16] It has also advocated for sexual and reproductive health rights, although there were previously internal divisions on the issue,[7][15] as well as LGBT rights.[17] CAFRA has also run donation drives after natural disasters.[13]

It previously published a bilingual magazine, CAFRA News, which launched in 1987.[6][10][18]

The organization's cultural efforts include publishing Creation Fire: A CAFRA Anthology of Caribbean Women's Poetry, said to be the first anthology of poetry by Caribbean women, in 1990.[19]

See also

References
  1. "Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action". PeaceWomen. 2015-02-03. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  2. "The Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action – CAFRA". UNI Global Union. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  3. "Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action". Caribbean Policy Development Centre. 7 December 2017. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  4. "Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action". Union of International Associations. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  5. "Founding Mothers". Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  6. Reddock, Rhoda (April 2007). "Diversity, Difference and Caribbean Feminism: The Challenge of Anti-Racism" (PDF). Caribbean Review of Gender Studies. 1.
  7. Baksh, Rawwida; Vassell, Linnette (August 2013). "Women's citizenship in the democracies of the Americas: The English-speaking Caribbean" (PDF). Inter-American Commission of Women, OAS.
  8. General history of the Caribbean. Knight, Franklin W., Sued Badillo, Jalil., Laurence, K. O., Ibarra, Jorge, 1931–2017, Brereton, Bridget, 1946–, Higman, B. W., 1943–. London. ISBN 92-3-103832-X. OCLC 38332241.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. "Structure". Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  10. "CAFRA Strategic Plan 2015-2018". Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action.
  11. Hibbert, Kimberley (2018-01-29). "Workshop tackles gender bias, human rights issues". Jamaica Observer. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  12. "CSO Directory". The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations. 2015-12-26. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  13. "Haitian Women's Groups Need Supplies for Women and Girls". The Root. 2010-02-05. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  14. "Integrating Gender Issues in Participatory and Collaborative Natural Resource Management" (PDF). November 1999.
  15. "Gender and Land Rights Database". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  16. "Feminist groups in Latin America". War Resisters' International. 1994-10-01. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  17. Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for (1995-05-01). "Trinidad and Tobago: Information on the treatment of lesbians by the authorities and the general public, on the societal attitudes towards lesbians, and on whether there are any groups advocating lesbian rights". Refworld. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  18. CAFRA (Organization). "CAFRA News: Newsletter of the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action". CAFRA News: Newsletter of the Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action. OCLC 793945045.
  19. Mahabir, Joy. (2012). Critical Perspectives on Indo-Caribbean Women's Literature. Pirbhai, Mariam. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 978-1-136-23350-0. OCLC 817890001.
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