The Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Center is a grassroots organization founded in 2003 working in Nigeria and the West Africa subregion to promote women’s rights and environmental justice through education, advocacy, and community action. They support and mobilize women in the region to speak out against violence and injustice specifically in the highly militarized Niger Delta.

As a follow-up and extension of their work last year, the Kebetkache Center will hold a Feminist Health and Economy Retreat for 40 women who are environmental justice campaigners and human rights defenders. Their specific objectives are to strengthen the women’s self-esteem, promote trauma healing, mitigate the impact of violence and human rights abuse of women, and promote the emergence of a feminist economy in the Niger Delta.

The retreat will provide a feminist space so that the women–some of whom are survivors of violence–can freely discuss and share their concerns; get and offer counseling; and engage in physiotherapy and psychosocial interventions. The retreat’s goal is to re-energize the participants and their work as human rights defenders and environmental justice campaigners, as well as to strategize about building a feminist economy. Through this work, they strive to empower and strengthen the women’s movement.