Global Women's Water Initiative

GWWI FOUNDERS

Gemma Bulos
Director, Global Women's Water Initiative

An award-winning social entrepreneur and musician, Gemma co-founded the Global Women’s Water Initiative along with Jan Hartsough and Melinda Kramer in 2007. Prior to stepping in as Director of GWWI, Gemma was the Founder/Executive Director of A Single Drop (USA) and the Founding Director of A Single Drop for Safe Water in the Philippines, developing innovative programming developing income-generating community-based water service organizations. For this innovation, Gemma received national and international best emerging social entrepreneur awards from Echoing Green, Ernst Young and Schwab Foundation, and others. Her programs also won accolades including the Tech Museum Tech Equality Award and Warriors of the UN Millennium Goals, sponsored by Kodak Philippines. Gemma is a musician and seasoned traveler, journeying to 45 countries experiencing the global water crisis first hand. She is the architect of the WE RISE Million Voice Choir, a global peace mission to unite people in celebration of water as a source of peace and equality.

Jan Hartsough
Founder, Crabgrass

Jan Hartsough is one of the founders of Crabgrass, a San Francisco based organization working globally and locally on environmental, social change, and h partnership with India-based Sankat Mochan Foundation to clean the Ganges River.  Crabgrass has organized three international conferences on Women and Water in South Asia. Jan is a community organizer on social and environmental uman rights issues.   Since 1982 Crabgrass has worked in issues. She has spent many years of working with small farmers and sustainable agriculture issues in California.

Melinda Kramer
Founder/Co-Director, Women's Earth Alliance

Melinda Kramer is the Founding Director of Women's Earth Alliance (WEA), an international organization that strengthens and unites grassroots, women-led environmental initiatives around the world. WEA creates opportunities for women to exchange information, build alliances and create environmental and social change at the local and global levels. From East Africa, to China, to the Russian Far East, to rural Missouri, Melinda has worked alongside grassroots NGOs in their pursuit for sustainable local economies, indigenous rights and environmental justice. Melinda has worked with dozens of citizen groups to build multi-stakeholder coalitions, organize campaigns, attain legal assistance, build capacity, and facilitate training programs.

LOCAL PARTNERS

Esther Mwaura-Muiru
Founder, GROOTS Kenya
GWWI Host Partner, Kenya 2008

Esther Mwaura-Muiru is a founder and coordinator of GROOTS Kenya (Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood), a network of more than 2000 self-help groups from poor communities in urban slums and rural areas across the country. She is also a leader within an international network of grassroots women – GROOTS International, where she is supporting the building of an all-Africa network of grassroots women’s organizations focusing on local governance, secure land tenure, and community responses to HIV and AIDS.  In GROOTS Kenya, grassroots women leaders and their organizations come together build a collective voice for women, advocate for important issues and share experiences and innovative initiatives in community development.  With the knowledge they gain from sharing their development practices and priorities, GROOTS Kenya members are able to effectively participate in program and policy decision-making taking place at the local, national and international arenas.

Cecilia Mensah
Program Officer, ProNet Accra
2010 Host Partner, Ghana

Cecilia Mensah is a part of the ProNet Accra team, and her organization is acting as the Ghanaian partner for this training. ProNet Accra helped identify local practices, technologies, and trainers that were appropriate for the Training, and they partner with GWWI to support the implementation phase of the year-long program.