CREATING A FAIRER WORLD
Since 2008, we have provided support to over 160,000 women and girls.
READ OUR latest IMPACT REPORT FOR 2021 – 2022
SINCE WE BEGAN We are proud to have:
- Raised over £2.5 million with the generous support from The Circle community
- Partnered with over 40 grassroots projects, organisations and campaigns in over 16 countries, particularly in the Global South and UK
- Brought together a network of hundreds of women and allies to fund, connect, and find creative ways to use their time and talents to create a fairer world.
- Launched ground-breaking reports calling for structural change to ensure the rights of millions of garment workers, 80% of whom are women, to receive a living wage.
- Convened events, safe spaces, and advocated on the global stage
- Created advocacy tools for lasting change such as our report on the implementation of the Maputo Protocol in Kenya
- Supported at times of crises through the launch of our COVID-19 and Afghanistan Women and Girls Solidarity Funds
- Amplified the voices of vulnerable women by bringing attention to important issues such as sexual violence through high-level media and creative communications using the mix of lived experience, activists and high-level women & allies
- Collaborated and added our voice with other organisations to create vital coalitions and partnerships, including the Equals campaign to raise awareness of International Women’s Day, CARE’s March4Women, the WOW Festival, Crack the Crises.
The Circle provides so much more than just funding.
They are true partners and have provided invaluable contribution to our work supporting girls' education in Uganda. We are incredibly grateful.
Your funding and support makes the world of difference.
We are very grateful to The Circle and your members who have given us so much support to run our services over the years. Your funding makes the world of difference to the women who need us in their time of crisis.
WHY OUR SUPPORT IS VITAL
01
The World Health Organisation – one in three women face physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
02
Calls to helplines have increased five-fold in some countries as rates of reported intimate partner violence increase because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
03
Over 603 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not considered a crime. And it is thought that less than 40 per cent of women who experience violence seek help of any sort.
04
In the UK, one in five women have experienced some type of sexual assault.
05
In India, a woman reports a rape every 15 minutes yet 99 per cent of rape cases in the country go unreported.
06
In Bolivia, estimates suggest that six in every 10 women have suffered physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner. In Russia, studies suggest that at least every fifth woman has experienced physical violence at the hands of their husband.
07
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a report in 2011, estimated that 1,152 women were raped every day – a rate equal to 48 per hour.
circle Campaigns with impact
Afghan Women & Girls Solidarity Fund 2021
As the Taliban took over in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, devastating reports showed women being sent home from their jobs, forced to leave university and education at gunpoint. Overnight we set up an emergency appeal and members and supporters donated over £20,000 in just two weeks. In partnership with organisations such as Women for Afghan Women the funds and support helped many women flee the country, and helped provide safe houses for women under threat.
#CirclesOfChange to Inspire
Taking inspiration from activists past and present, we called for people to gather their circles of friends and family and inspire them to take action and stand up for women everywhere. From the suffragettes who organised and fought to gain the vote, top female collectives who stand up to abuse and provide sanctuary for each other, it is when women inspire each other that they turn their hopes and dreams of a better world into a reality. Our 2021 International Women’s Day campaign saw hundreds gather, raise funds, share their inspiration, and believe in their power to create a better future.
#CRACKTHECRISES IN COALITION
In 2020 we joined a coalition of activists, political leaders, and feminists on a march to Downing Street to deliver a public letter. The call to action, co-ordinated by Care International UK, brought together a powerful group of voices including Circle Founder Annie Lennox, and Circle Ambassadors Livia Firth, Lucy Siegle, Kalpona Akter. Together, we called on the G7 to end the crisis women and girls across the world are disproportionately suffering.
Covid Emergency Appeal
As the biggest global health crisis in our lifetime hit, Circle members and supporters came together to respond to the growing crisis for women and girls across the world. We gathered, raised funds, spread the word and we were able to support over 5,000 women and girls in the UK and global south in 2020, through our COVID-19 Women & Girls Solidarity Fund.
Global Feminism Campaign
Our Global Feminism campaign in 2019 highlighted the tremendous struggles so many women face across the world and our film, supported by leading lights and activists, reached across borders with the call to become Global Feminists. “We need to support human rights, justice and equality for women and girls everywhere in the world, especially in countries where they are not even the lowest rung of the ladder.” Annie Lennox
