pic courtesy of SHAGGY ISAAC
It was a combination of two striking stories in the Toronto Star today that got me thinking about Red Thread. The first was Maher Arar’s public critique — he asks, if journalists aren’t looking out for the marginalized, who is? The second story was the gut-wrenching reports of gang rape and religious violence in India in 2008.
During my time at OISE/University of Toronto, I had the opportunity to visit the most inspiring feminists I have ever met. A Guyanese miraculously multiracial women’s organization, Red Thread is working on a shoestring budget and does more work than you can imagine.

About Red Thread

Red thread is an anti-racist organization that defends the rights of women, sticks out its neck to speak out against violence against women, and attends to the very basic needs of its constituency – literacy, help during floods, transportation — everything from helping mothers budget for food to advocacy and protest.
They explain their project as twofold: Bringing together low-income Guyanese women of African, Indian, and Indigenous descent, across race divides; and Developing the skills, information, and other resources [they] need to understand and contest the inequalities that oppress grassroots women.

Presently, they are trying to send delegates to a conference in the UK. They write,
We are currently trying to organise to attend an international set of meetings in London, the UK, next week, and for seven grassroots women from Guyana to attend. The meetings are organised by the Global Women’s Strike, Red Thread is the national co-ordinator of the Strike in Guyana.
With the influx of major news stories that cycle through our newpapers, blogs, TVs, and radios, I feel like it’s also important to draw attention to smaller groups with less resources, working hard in places that don’t always make the headlines.
For more info or to get involved, please contact [email protected]