Fil-Am Coalition for Environment Receives Grant INQ7.net
July 20, 2006
The Filipino/American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity (FACES) in Berkeley, CA, was recently awarded $3,000 by RESIST, Inc., a progressive national foundation in Somerville, MA.
FACES is a small, multi-generational organization mostly of volunteers working for environmental justice in the U.S. and the Philippines. It will use the funding for work begun in 2000, seeking justice for communities affected by toxic contamination in and around former U.S. military bases in the Philippines.
Today FACES has evolved to work on broader transnational issues of environmental justice. With this grant, it intends to advance its current programs with educational and identity workshops, the annual Face2Face exchange trip to the Philippines, and organizing projects around toxic oil depots.
“We are honored and grateful that RESIST continues to believe in us and support our work and the people and impacted communities we engage with. This grant not only strengthens FACES as an organization, but also forges hope and resiliency in the broader struggle for environmental justice. We are delighted that RESIST has joined our efforts in this struggle,” said FACES Board Chair Galatea King.
For its part, RESIST began in 1967 with a “call to resist illegitimate authority,” in support of draft resistance and opposition to the Vietnam War. It has continued to fund movements for social justice covering civil rights; environmental, reproductive and women’s and prisoner’s rights; international human rights; lesbian/gay/ bisexual/ transgender rights; economic justice; media and culture.
Over the years RESIST has evolved into a national foundation providing small but timely funding for grassroots peace and social justice groups. In six funding cycles of the calendar year, it gives grants and loans of up to $3,000.
In fiscal year 2005, it gave almost $282,000 to 136 organizations across the U.S. “RESIST funds groups like FACES because our mission is to support people who take a stand about the issues that matter today, whether it’s to resist corporate globalization, promote a woman’s right to choose, or develop activist leaders,” says RESIST Board Chair Marc Miller.
“And we believe it is especially important to help grassroots organizations that might be too small or too local—or too radical—for mainstream foundations.”
