Artemisa Castro Felix

FASOL, Fondo Accion Solidaria A.C. (Mexico)

Artemisa Castro is Executive Director of Fondo Acción Solidaria(FASOL) in Mexico. She is also a member of the Global Funders Alliance for Social Environmental Action. A biologist by training, she founded a local organization in Baja California Sur in the 1990s to spark and develop community action both to improve the local social and environmental conditions and to empower local women. This led to her collaboration with a group of other environmental activists and ultimately to the founding of FASOL in 2007, the first fund in Mexico dedicated to supporting grassroots community action through a programme of small grants, mentorship, capacity building and networking.

The Fund, which brings together community foundations, family and corporate foundations and others, has now supported more than 700 community groups across Mexico to achieve, among other things, the advancement of sustainable agriculture and an increased community voice in policy-making on the critical issues that affect them.