Ignacio Martín-Baró Initiative for Wellbeing and Human Rights
/OVERVIEW: The Ignacio Martín-Baró Fund supports human rights organizations that develop innovative ways to explore the links between mental health and social injustice.
IP TAKE: This is an inaccessible grantmaker, which does not make it easy to secure a grant. It also prefers to support grassroots groups that demonstrate an innovative approach to human rights. It’s also not very responsive. This is a tough nut to crack.
PROFILE: The Ignacio Martín-Baró Initiative for Wellbeing and Human Rights (previously the Martín-Baró Fund for Mental Health and Human Rights) was established by the friends and family of Jesuit priest and social psychologist, Father Ignacio Martín-Baró, who was murdered at the Central American University in San Salvador in 1989. The initiative seeks to foster “psychological well-being, social consciousness, active resistance, and progressive social change in communities affected by institutional violence, repression and social injustice.” The Ignacio Martín-Baró Initiative for Wellbeing and Human Rights is a project of Grassroots International, and its operations are managed by the Boston College Center for Human Rights and International Justice.
Grants for Global Security, Human Rights and Mental Health
The fund supports projects and organizations that explore the role of a local community in helping individuals and communities recover from experiences of violence, repression, and injustice. This funder’s giving overlaps with various focus areas though it does not have distinct programs. It also works to “promote education and critical awareness about the psychosocial consequences of structural violence, repression and social injustice on individuals and communities, while educating ourselves and the wider community about the community-based responses of grantees in their pursuit to social reparation and a more just and equitable world.”
Past grantees include Victim’s Association for Peace and Development (ASVIPAD), The Palestine Youth Action Center for Community Development, The Justice Committee, Communauté des Planteurs et Éleveurs dans la Région Maraîchère, Asociación Centro de Educación y Formación Maya Ixil, and Al Zahraa Society. To learn more about the types of organizations the fund supports or has supported, take a look at its Projects page.
Important Grant Details:
While it funds large organizations, the MBF tends to fund grassroots organizations. Grant amounts rarely, if ever, exceed $7,000. Martín-Baró does not pose geographical restrictions on its giving, but letters of inquiry must be in English or Spanish. It does not accept unsolicited letters of inquiry outside of the submission period.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS
