Our Story
Kuluntu Reproductive Justice Center was created as Kuluntu Doula in 2018, after Khye Tyson (they/them/their) trained to become a doula and childbirth educator in June and July of that year. In 2018, Khye also became an Errin J. Vuley Fellow with Feminist Women's Health Center in Atlanta. There, Khye learned more about the field of reproductive justice as a political and ideological home and ways to connect with real people around real issues that affect their lives.
Throughout 2018, Khye noticed the disconnect between birthwork (the "frontline" working with the general population) and reproductive justice (the grassroots organizations, political organizations, and intersectional scholars). Khye began to consider ways to combine both of those in real time.
Our first event was Meet the Doulas in December 2018. There were only 4 attendees at the first event, but the connections made between those birthworkers continues. We hosted another Meet the Doulas a few months later, and the event continued to grow steadily for the next year. Meet the Doulas became a healing space for birthing families to find healing and education, doulas to connect with potential clients and network with other birthworkers, and other service providers to connect to the birthwork world to form new connections.
Slowly but surely, Kuluntu Doula became known as a "doula's doula" and has found a niche in working with birthworkers to strengthen their businesses. In October 2019, Kuluntu Doula became Kuluntu Reproductive Justice Center, and Khye decided to unapologetically center Black women and LGBTQ+ people, families, and communities of color. During this time, we began to host Queer and Trans Families Kiki and Bellies on the Beltline for families to build community with other families in order to create a web of interdependence with community members.
Responses to crises
An integral aspect of Kuluntu Reproductive Justice Center is the flexibility to be able to respond to community concerns in real time. In fall 2019, Kuluntu RJC distributed 240 dosages of emergency contraception across the state of Georgia. In June 2020, Kuluntu RJC began fundraising efforts to create 12 postpartum care packages for Black birthing folx. After a grassroots campaign raised over $1,000, Kuluntu won a $5,000 Groundswell grant to expand the postpartum care package program.
How you can help
Kuluntu RJC is a grassroots organization, which means that much of what we do is done for free or low-cost. All the funds we have used were either raised or given by grantmaking organizations.
Recurring monthly funds raised here will be used for monthly subscription prices to Planoly, Canva, MailChimp, and other digital services. We are also creating an ongoing fund for families to pay for doula services on a sliding scale.
Our team
Khye Tyson, founder and CEO
Khye Tyson is a southern queer Black agender femme who enjoys yoga, doula-ing, subverting the gender binary, & designing underwear for nonbinary folx.
Over the past 2 years, we have built a strong kuluntu (community) on both Instagram and Facebook. Thank you all for your support, words of affirmation, shares, likes, and laughs!
