KaSaMa 2011 awards human rights projects

MANILA, Philippines - Fourteen innovative human rights projects by Filipino civil society organizations received this year’s Karapatan sa Malikhaing Paraan (KaSaMa) grants amounting to P13 million.

The awarding was attended by human rights advocates from the government, namely Commission on Human Rights chair Loretta Ann Rosales, House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III and chairman of the House committee on Human Rights Rep. Rene Relampagos, as well as members of the diplomatic corps and representatives of civil society organizations.

KaSaMa is a funding facility that was set up to support innovative human rights projects by civil society organizations. It was launched in 2009, and re-launched on Aug. 25, 2011. KaSaMa is a joint program of the embassies of Australia, Britain, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the Delegation of the European Union to the Philippines.

This year’s call for proposals was held from August to October. In order to ensure awareness and participation of civil society organizations, KaSaMa launched an official website for this initiative, set up a Facebook page, and conducted human rights road shows in selected universities in the Philippines. A total of 147 proposals were received by the secretariat from various human rights groups and advocates.

KaSaMa 2011 is being implemented by a consortium secretariat composed of the Ateneo Human Rights Center, the Ateneo School of Government and the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO).