Equality for Women and Girls

The Central America and Mexico Youth Fund (CAMY Fund) is a multi-donor initiative that supports projects in Central America and Mexico that are led by youth, for the benefit of youth in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua. Launched in 2014 by the Seattle International Foundation with support from Summit, the CAMY Fund is guided by a vision of a world where diverse youth are able to fully exercise their human rights and live in just, peaceful, prosperous, and joyful communities.

Based in Mexico City, the CAMY Fund provides financial, technical, and political resources to youth organizations, collective groups and networks in Central America and Mexico. CAMY Fund’s current objectives include:

• strengthening youth social movements in favor of human rights, especially of historically marginalized communities
• increasing the amount and availability of flexible autonomous funds for youth social movements dedicated to advocating for human rights

Recent examples from among CAMY’s 40+ grantees since inception include:

• Mexico y Caribe Jovenes (GOJoven Mexico): for young leaders to create alliances with schools and local governments to advocate for projects focused on preventing unintended adolescent pregnancies
• Socialab Guatemala: to develop a short film entitled Tormenta Roja (Red Storm), focused on the beginning of menstruation for adolescents in secluded Guatemalan villages that lack access to education.
• Toledo Maya Women’s Council (Belize): continued implementation of an adapted version of Abriendo Oportunidades curriculum with six girl programs in four rural and indigenous communities.
• Organization for Youth Empowerment (Honduras): for training on sexual and reproductive health and rights education among student leaders from marginalized urban communities in Yoro.

With support from Summit, Ford and NoVo Foundations, from 2017-2020, the CAMY Fund implemented a three-year Latin America and Caribbean (LAC)-wide initiative focusing on ending child, early and/or forced marriage and unions (CEFMU) with a sub-regional emphasis on Mexico and Central America.  See the press release here. The initiative supported several local organizations to research and implement programs, while also working with the UN and coordinating with Girls Not Brides in various countries. A goal was to highlight drivers of early unions and connect organizations in LAC that are working to end particularly nonconsensual CEFMU and to disseminate information, research and strategies and to coordinate advocacy.

CAMY Fund regional partners include the Center for Reproductive Rights, Frida Young Feminist Fund, Fondo Calala, Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres (FCAM), Fondo Semillas, Girls Not Brides, Global Fund for Children, Global Fund for Women, Hispanics in Philanthropy, Investigación en Salud y Demografía, Madre, Plan International, Planned Parenthood Global, Public Health Institute, UNICEF and UNFPA Belize and the Women’s Equality Center.

In addition to Ford and NoVo Foundations, other current CAMY Fund donors include Foundation for a Just Society and Wellspring Philanthropic Fund.

Title and banner photo © Carol Guzy | Ripple Effect Images