Support for African Women's Employment Program

As Covid-19 holds us all hostage and other unrest disrupts the peace of all hardworking people, MAWA’s participants panic and run to the one agency where they feel at home and listened to: MAWA. As many people stay home and work from home, our workload has instead doubled as our participants request new tasks of us and we cannot say no, because our heart is in serving these low-income and under-served population. So, we stretch ourselves to meet their every demand while we struggle to find a way to keep the organization running and staff compensated to some degree. We consider it an honor that they rely on MAWA for so many services. We are happy to have their trust. We have seen the resilience of African refugee and immigrant women as they seize opportunities that are offered to them, juggle their family needs and theirs and make time to improve themselves and be self-sufficient. We celebrate the 219 women who seized the opportunity to become Certified Nursing Assistants in the 3 years MAWA found funding for scholarships for them. 219 new Certified Nursing Assistants in the Twin Cities! We celebrate that. MAWA is re-opening following an unplanned hiatus while the Executive Director was on sabbatical. Though the official location was closed, staff continued serving participants on a volunteer basis. It is a sign of the commitment and dedication of these staff persons that they resume their roles with MAWA and continue serving African women and girls. Though this fundraiser is for the women's program, MAWA is also proud of the girls' program which led to all graduating seniors gaining admission and attending college whereas the expectation of African girls going on to college was way below 25% - not up to a fifth of their peers from other communities.  Now we can count MAWA girls among medical doctors, lawyers, Ph.D. holders and in many other fields in Minnesota. Our biggest needs now are for a satellite office in the East Metro for consistent services to participants in that area and general operating funds for the organization as a whole. Thank you profoundly for your support.