Felipa de Souza’ Women’s Group

The group’s mission is to raise society’s awareness of women’s rights; to address discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender, generation, social class, disability and belief, lesbophobia, sexism, chauvinism and to contribute to the improvement of women’s living conditions so they can achieve citizenship and political awareness.

Therefore, it conducts workshops and lectures for groups of lesbian women in general, female soccer teams, as well as in prostitution areas, Candomblé worship places, bars, dance clubs, schools and Universities in the municipal, state and national spheres. Most of its work is developed in Rio de Janeiro and Greater Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and its metropolitan area.

Representatives of the Group also participate in conferences, meetings and congresses held by other organizations, following the agenda of the Brazilian social movement.

The Project

The Brazil Fund supported project consists of the political education of lesbians in Salvador and its metropolitan area. Its goal is to create a space for reflection, debate, discussions and actions regarding topics related to lesbian issues: health, violence against lesbians and among lesbians, gender issues, racial-ethnic issues, sexual and reproductive rights, citizenship and human rights, autonomy building, employment and income and mainly the fight against lesbophobia and racism.

The idea is to provide these women with conditions which allow them to face daily discrimination and institutional violence. There is no official data regarding this group of society. The religious fundamentalism and intolerance of certain government departments together with the lack of knowledge in regards to the LGBT community’s specificities make the designing of adequate public policies to this population impossible.

The project will directly benefit up to 580 lesbians who are young, adults, old, low-incomes, Afro-descendants, residents of the outskirts or poor communities and those of social risk. Indirectly, 1,740 people can be reached by the information disseminated by the participants. The purpose is to make these women new lesbian leaders and politically active in the defense of claims from the LGBT population.

The group is liaised with other civil society organizations such as AMB – Brazilian Women Group; AMNB – Group of Brazilian Afro-descendant Women Organizations; Candaces BR – Afro-descendant Lesbians National Collective; REPEM – Popular Learning Network for Latin American and Caribbean Women; and RFS – Feminist Health Network .