Local Group Resources

In 1983, we created the Hanna Grunwald Fund—still going strong--to support wider ranging relief projects proposed by our country specialists and approved by researchers at the International Secretariat. In this capacity we made grants to a center for the treatment of honor crime victims and potential victims in Pakistan; several US death penalty exonerees released from death row and trying to make a new start; potential Extra-Judicial Execution Victims (EJEs) from Eritrea, Honduras, Guatemala; human rights defender refugees from Chad, China, Mexico; an association for the defense of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran; a Mexican torture rehabilitation project; an Iraqi mutual aid society in Chicago; the refugee families of  prominent dissidents in China, Kenya, the Ivory Coast; a former Guantanamo detainee resettled in France; the medical treatment of rape victims in the DRC; asylum seekers from Tibet and Iran, etc... 

Typically, we spend $30,000 to $65,000 a year on such grants.  Applications to the Hanna Grunwald Fund can be submitted by country specialists and must earn the approval of the appropriate IS researcher (just to make sure we are coordinating with other sections). They can also be made by local groups or by AIUSA staff, coordinating with the appropriate country specialist and IS researcher.  The AIUSA Relief Committee is staffed by two long-term members, Lisa Schwebel and Barbara Sproul.