Grassroots International

Grassroots International Our primary focus is on land, water and food as human rights and nourishing the political struggle necessary to achieve these rights.

08/31/2026

“They were not slaves. They were resistance fighters.”

This Black August, we remember enslaved Africans’ resistance.

Earlier this month, a caravan of movements traveled across West Africa to amplify struggles over land, water, seeds, and territory, ending at the World Social Forum in Benin.

The caravan made a crucial stop at the Maison des Esclaves (House of Slaves) in Togo, where hundreds of thousands of enslaved people were held kidnapped and chained on their way to the Americas.

The caravan’s visit drew connections between resistance to the theft of bodies and to the theft of territory in the global struggle for Black liberation. For the caravan, memory is part of movement building.

Those who passed through the Maison were not passive victims, but people who resisted, and should be remembered as such. Their legacy continues on in movements across the African diaspora.

We share this in the commemoration of Black August, a month for reflecting on the resistance of Black freedom fighters.

🚨ALERT🚨 Stand with Afro-Indigenous people encamping in front of the Supreme Court of Honduras to defend their rights.The...
08/18/2026

🚨ALERT🚨 Stand with Afro-Indigenous people encamping in front of the Supreme Court of Honduras to defend their rights.

The situation in Honduras is getting heavier by the day, with right-wing and state military forces escalating their threats and attacks against the lives, lands, and territories of the country’s peasant, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous communities. Dozens of land defenders have been killed. Many have been detained.

The Afro-Indigenous Garifuna community, however, is not backing down. They’re calling for international solidarity actions while they have set up the “Viva Berta” protest encampment outside of the Supreme Court of Honduras. Join them in demanding an end to the persecution of rural peoples, their community leaders, and their legally recognized ancestral territories.

Take action via grassrootsonline.org/garifuna or the link in our bio.

08/07/2026

The West African Caravan is more than a route across countries. It is a political process led by the people whose lives are directly shaped by land, water, migration, security, and the struggle for peace.

Every two years, communities across West Africa come together to travel through the region - building integration, sharing recommendations, and defending the rights of those who depend on natural resources for their livelihoods.

As Massa Kone of No Vox Africa explains, the questions being brought to the World Social Forum are not abstract.

Who has the right to move freely across borders?

Who gets to speak about peace and security in the Sahel?

Who defines Africa’s development?

And what would it mean for communities — not only governments — to shape the solutions?

“Resolving this conflict, this war is not just a matter for governments or politicians; it is a matter for the people, and it is a matter for communities.”

The Caravan carries that message forward: Africa’s future cannot be decided only by those in formal power. It must be shaped by the communities who are organizing, resisting, and bringing concrete proposals from the ground up.

08/06/2026

Land is never just land.

It’s food, livelihood, memories, and the basis for self-determination.

At the Second African Youth Forum on Land, Larissa Yapo of Young Volunteers for the Environment Côte d’Ivoire speaks to the urgent land struggles facing communities across the continent. From rampant urbanization and shrinking access to land, to the future of smallholder agroecology and food sovereignty.

These conversations are not separate from the World Social Forum. They are part of the same political moment: social movements naming the systems that displace communities, concentrate land and resources, and threaten the right of people to define their own futures.

That may be why these gatherings are treated as such a threat by those in power.

The World Social Forum in Benin was nearly cancelled by the government. A reminder that when movements come together across borders to organize around land, justice, and liberation, they are not simply holding a conference, they are building power.

As Larissa reminds us, land tenure is a question of social justice, and across Africa and beyond, young people and grassroots movements are making clear: the future of land must be shaped by the communities who depend on it.

The West African Caravan for the Right to Land, Water and Peasant Seeds brings together farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralist...
08/04/2026

The West African Caravan for the Right to Land, Water and Peasant Seeds brings together farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, youth organizers, trade unionists, informal workers, and community leaders from across the region — traveling toward the World Social Forum with testimony, demands, and community-built proposals.

Along the way, the Caravan stops in villages and cities to listen, organize, visit agroecological farms, hold public forums, meet with local authorities, and surface the realities too often left out of official reports: land grabbing, coastal erosion, seed privatization, climate disruption, and the loss of livelihoods.

These are not separate struggles.

Land, water, seeds and territory are part of a shared commons — essential to food sovereignty, self-determination, and the right of people to define their own futures.

As the Caravan makes its way to the World Social Forum, it carries a clear message: the people most affected by today’s crises already hold the knowledge, experience, and solutions needed to confront them.

The future must be built from below.

Our staff member Boaventura writes on his travels with Caravane Ouest Africaine Terre et Eau, the West African Caravan f...
07/31/2026

Our staff member Boaventura writes on his travels with Caravane Ouest Africaine Terre et Eau, the West African Caravan for the Right to Land, Water and Peasant Seeds.

This year's journey coincides with the 17th World Social Forum (WSF), which West Africa is hosting for the first time. The timing is not incidental. The Caravan is the mobilization.

“The continent’s stability, development, and future also depend on its communities. They are the true foundation of Africa, and their voices must be heard.”

Read more: https://grassrootsonline.org/learning_hub/africa-caravan-world-social-forum/

📸 Caravane Ouest Africaine Terre et Eau & Convergence TerreetEau

Merci à notres amis et camarades pour l'hospitalité. Bonne chance et bon voyage!

Bloody massacres of peasants. Forced evictions from ancestral territories. Human rights defenders detained or disappeare...
07/30/2026

Bloody massacres of peasants. Forced evictions from ancestral territories. Human rights defenders detained or disappeared.

The arrival of a new right-wing government in Honduras is fueling violence and displacement against organized peasant, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous Garifuna communities. The country’s grassroots social movements are calling on us to respond.

Movements are in urgent need of funds to protect and defend their communities, increase security measures for organizers, strengthen legal teams, and more. Please donate today to our Honduras Emergency Fund: grassrootsonline.org/honduras (also in the comments)

100% of funds raised will go to grassroots organizations on the ground in Honduras.

Join the World Pastoralist Assembly and build collective power from the grassroots! ✊Pastoralist communities are on the ...
07/29/2026

Join the World Pastoralist Assembly and build collective power from the grassroots! ✊

Pastoralist communities are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, yet our voices are too often left out of the decisions that affect our future.

Across the world, our livelihoods, cultures, and rangelands are under growing threat, from land grabbing to policies that ignore our knowledge, rights, and way of life.

But pastoralists are not just facing these challenges, we are organizing to overcome them. During the WPA, we will build collective solutions and defend:

🌱 Our lands and territories
🌍 Climate justice
🐄 Sustainable pastoralism
🌾Food sovereignty
🤝Full respect for pastoralists' rights

Join the WPA and become part of the world's only global grassroots movement of pastoralists rooted in solidarity, resilience, and collective action! Contact us for more information. 📩

07/23/2026

“All I could do was buy her a little bit of time so that she could say goodbye to her children.” — Dr. Mimi Syed

Dr. Mimi Syed, who recently arrived from Gaza, joined a webinar Grassroots International hosted with our partners on the ground supporting women in Gaza. She shared what it means when a health care system is specifically targeted by the Israeli military, and pushed beyond collapse.

She told us about a 29-year-old mother named Mariam, who arrived by ambulance with her three small children. Months earlier, her cancer was treatable. But without access to surgery, chemotherapy, or medical evacuation, and after being denied medical treatment four times by the Israeli government, a survivable diagnosis became a death sentence.

Her story is part of the same reality that Palestinian health workers continue to face — from hospitals being destroyed to doctors like Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, being arbitrarily detained for carrying out their medical duties.

It is just one example of what our partners on the ground have witnessed during the current genocide – and continue to witness, despite a so-called “ceasefire”. And yet, amid devastating circumstances, our partners keep rising to meet the needs of the moment – unwavering in their commitment to self-determination and their love for their people. They’re reaching displaced families with food, water, and hygiene kits, deploying mobile health teams, and organizing to make sure women, children, and people with disabilities get the specific support they need.

Health care is a human right. The people of Gaza deserve the care, safety, and conditions needed to survive.

Donate to Grassroots International’s Palestine Emergency Fund to support our partners’ frontline response in Palestine (Link in Grassroots International bio).

07/14/2026

Philanthropy cannot be neutral in the face of injustice.

For too long, the sector has operated from a place of distance — moving resources, but failing to help transform the systems, relationships, and power dynamics that created the need in the first place.

Solidarity asks something deeper of us.

It asks us to examine our role, our practice, and our purpose. It asks us to move beyond charity and toward long-term commitment. It asks us to resource movements not as outsiders, but as accountable partners in the struggle for justice and collective liberation.

As Chung-Wha Hong, Co-Executive Director of Grassroots International, reminds us, moving from complicity to solidarity is a transformation — one that must shape not only what we fund, but how we do the work.

Listen to Becoming the Vision, Ep. 4 — “In Solidarity.”

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