Wilde Ganzen has named Stichting Makara Gender Ambassador 2026-2027, awarding it the Civic Focus Gender Award. The prize recognises the way Makara, together with its Indonesian partners, gives women a leading role in the restoration of rivers.

From many strong applications, the jury chose Makara’s work. What stood out was the approach in which women gather their own data and produce concrete evidence about the pollution in their surroundings. With that evidence in hand, they stand stronger in conversations with community leaders and decision-makers, and gain more say over what happens in their own village and watershed.

We owe this award in part to ECOTON, with whom we developed the AKSI Brantas approach. Alongside research tools and lobby training, that approach also explicitly supports the solutions women propose themselves: for conservation and restoration, and to reduce plastic use and waste. Think riverbank herb gardens, fish sanctuaries, moringa green belts and refill stores.

The jury also valued how the work shows that gender equality and environmental and climate challenges are connected. Equality does not have to be a separate topic; it can become part of broader restoration. That is exactly what the women along the Brantas in Java and the Balantieng in South Sulawesi do every day.

We will put the 10,000 euro prize to work in the Balantieng watershed in South Sulawesi, to reach even more women there. And because Wilde Ganzen adds 50 percent on top of every euro we raise under our partnership, each euro becomes one and a half euros on the ground.

Thank you to Wilde Ganzen and the Civic Focus team for the recognition, and to all the women who carry this work. As gender ambassador 2026-2027, I look forward to building on this together.