In support of the Anti Racism Movement
The Anti-Racism Movement (ARM) organizes alongside Migrant Workers, including women domestic workers, living and working under the oppressive Kafala system. We work with migrant-led collectives to support their community organizing, collective action, self-advocacy and activism against systemic racism and injustice.
We do this through offering an open and accessible space (Migrant Community Center) where migrants can form communities and organize through working on advocacy, research, campaigning and supporting grassroots initiative building; and through legal counseling and casework.
The current moment is a critical one for human rights and feminist work, both globally and in Lebanon specifically. Resources available are dwindling, and with mounting crises in Lebanon, focus over the past years for funders have turned to short-term relief. Meanwhile, our community of allies is experiencing a brain drain as many have left the country over the past years.
ARM is one of the few remaining organizations in Lebanon committed to remain political in its work, seeking structural long term change, led by migrant communities. This requires not only financial sustainability, but also an ability to prioritize spending based on community needs.
This is where your support has been indispensable to us, and why it is more crucial than ever now. Donations we receive from you provide us with the leniency to spend exactly the way we need to, in order to do the work needed to tackle larger structural change, and remain aligned to our values.
We are counting on you! You can read more about ARM’s story and values below, and you can check out the highlights of our work over the past year by reading our 2023 Annual Report here: https://armlebanon.org/annual-report-2023/
Our Story
ARM was launched in 2010 as a grassroots collective by young Lebanese feminist activists in collaboration with migrant workers and migrant domestic workers following a racist incident at one of Beirut’s most well-known private beach resorts. ARM activists, using a hidden camera, filmed the administration’s blatant acts of discrimination and segregation. The video quickly spread online, and ARM’s efforts to bring this issue to light were lauded by many. Interest grew in this small volunteer-based movement, members increased, and our interventions grew in scope and scale. In 2012, ARM became a registered NGO with a growing staff team in order to increase its capacity to carry out more projects to fight racist discrimination and abuse in Lebanon.
ARM works to achieve social, economic and gender justice for all migrant workers and racialized groups in Lebanon. We recognize the significance of self-organizing and actively support Migrant Domestic Worker (MDW) leadership in rights activism. A primary focus of ARM is women migrant domestic workers living and working under the oppressive Kafala System, which is used to recruit and hire foreign labor in Lebanon, Jordan and the Gulf states.
Our Migrant Community Center (MCC)
Offering free, welcoming, inclusive and safe spaces where migrant workers can gather freely, get acquainted with their rights, and develop tools to lead on their self-advocacy is one of the cornerstones of our work.
MCC serves as an anti-racist, feminist, and alternative space where migrant workers can build powerful networks, access information, resources, classes, training, direct assistance and long-term support. It has created a home away from home for more than 1000 members of more than 26 nationalities.
Over the past decade, the center has also hosted celebrations, birthdays, farewells, reunions, vigils, weddings, potlucks, and other community events. It has contributed to building networks of support and strength that have expanded way beyond the doors of the MCCs.
Our Values
We adopt a feminist ethics of care in our work, where we value attentiveness, responsibility, responsiveness, and compassion. We also privilege the voices of migrant workers in every aspect of our work. We use a social justice framework as the basis for our approach, upholding fundamental human rights for everyone in our communities. We value the expression and practice of solidarity among all marginalized communities as a necessary alliance against oppressive and unjust systems. We view our everyday work as political and always seek to address the larger social, economic, cultural and policy structures that enable discrimination, abuse, and rights violations. We value the importance of building safe and strong communities that sustain the activism and offer supportive social networks for migrants and their allies.
COLLECTED TO DATE
COLLECTED TO DATE
$75
