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INSIDE DFW PROGRAMS: YOUR JANUARY UPDATE |
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January Featured Program
Heshima Kenya
Identifying, protecting, and empowering unaccompanied refugee children and youth
Heshima Kenya's Girl's Empowerment Project is an informal education program for refugee women and girls between the ages of 13 and 23 years old. The curriculum consists of four transitional components encompassing basic education, e-skills training, vocational training and income-generation support. Heshima Kenya provides opportunities for basic education, livelihood options, and human rights education while cultivating leadership within a safe and supportive community.
Above is a photograph of Euphrozine laughing with other Heshima Kenya girls. Recently able to afford an apartment for herself and her son Kevin, Euphrozine is one of Heshima Kenya's many success stories.
The DFW grant of $50,000 over 2 years will support 150 girls.
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JANUARY SUSTAINED PROGRAM FUNDING
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The BOMA Project, Kenya
Using business to build resiliency in the arid lands of rural Africa
The BOMA Project was a featured program in May 2009 and again in December 2010. With DFW's sustained funding, BOMA will launch 36 Rural Entrepreneur Access Project (REAP) micro-enterprises per year, over three years, for a total of 108 new businesses. Each new business provides a diversified income for three women and children they care for. This program will support 324 women and an estimated 1,620 children.
BOMA participant Busugo Kochale (left): "If we are nothing, then our businesses will fail. But we are not nothing."
DFW will provide a grant of $15,000 each year for 3 years, totaling $45,000 of Sustained Program Funding. |
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 "Thank you for your tremendous gift to Emerge Global and the inspiring girls we work with every day." Alia Whitney-Johnson, Founder
Thanks to a $30,902 grant given to Emerge Global in 2011, 124 Sri Lankan girls between the ages of 10 and 18, all survivors of sexual abuse, have been equipped with the critical life and business skills needed to live healthy, self-sufficient lives. Through Emerge Global's work, these young women were able to generate $29,701 of savings through jewelry design, receive training in business development, financial management, reproductive health, community action, job readiness and more, and were connected to inspiring local women to build a network of support.
Emerge was able to leverage their grant from DFW to garner further support for their work, including partnering with new retail outlets to sell Emerge jewelry, securing their first major local funding, partnering with Miss Sri Lanka as their celebrity spokesperson, and being selected by the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka as her charity of choice for International Day of the Girl.
Before Emerge, no one wanted to work with these young women (to continue their education), and now Emerge has volunteers designing their own programs! Dining for Women's resources have therefore been magnified in ways beyond expectations. A testimonial from an Emerge Peer Educator:
"An unexpected event changed my life one day. My fate was changed in a way that I never thought it would. It left me at my lowest, heartbroken and lonely. At that time, when I was without any help, feeling sad, it was the beading workshop that helped ease my pain and loneliness and helped me make up my mind and console myself. The satisfaction I feel in combining beautiful colors, designing and completing a beautiful necklace or bracelet is hard to describe in words. These workshops have helped me succeed in life and face life as a successful human being to this day. I thank the people who helped me and guided me through this difficult time. Now as my career, I have dedicated myself to teach girls that have faced the same challenges as me. I do it with immense happiness.
 I believe I can empathize with our girls and be a friend to them. I have had many diverse experiences ever since the beginning of this program. From the savings generated from this program, girls have been able to build their own house and care for their child. I am happy to witness these events. It's good to be part of something that is so helpful to another person. All this is possible because of Emerge. I feel that people who were from Emerge as well as those who partnered with us from the start were able to understand the feelings of the children they work with. I believe they have shown immense dedication towards these children. To this day, three years of my life have been spent with Emerge. I feel it is a great achievement to have been able to work with Emerge for three years."
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Global Grassroots
August Featured Program
 In December, Global Grassroots received a $50,000 grant check from DFW. Gretchen Wallace, Founder and President, (pictured at the easel, teaching in Kigali, Rwanda) writes: "Global Grassroots is deeply grateful for the funding and support of Dining for Women. We are immediately investing this grant in two social ventures, led by women trained in our Academy for Conscious Change in Rwanda, who call themselves United People and A Friend Indeed. United People is working on the issue of domestic violence, and will be teaching 210 couples about gender-based violence, family law, reproductive health and family planning, while providing women with income-generating activities, so that they have greater economic power to leave abusive relationships. A Friend Indeed is working on the issue of teenage pregnancy and the stigma that further marginalizes single mothers and their children among nearly 700 community members. We are excited to update you on their progress in the months ahead!"
Health in Harmony
September Featured Program
 Michelle Bussard (center), Managing Director for Health In Harmony, was honored to receive a check for $33,000 from DFW at the Portland-4 chapter meeting on Dec. 13th. Karen Faunt (left), Program Selection Team member, and Patricia Andersson (right), head of the Travel Program, were the proud presenters.
Patricia will be leading a DFW trip to Indonesia this spring to visit Health In Harmony in Borneo.
"I can't tell you how much it means to Health In Harmony to receive this gift that will so greatly benefit widows and their families in the 30 villages served by Health In Harmony and program partner, ASRI" Michelle said. "Dining for Women's generosity is humbling and an inspiration for all."
INMED Partnerships for Children
September Sustained Program Funding
 DFW Peru travelers Linda Broadbent (far left) and Helen Belletti (second from right), and Sheila Hanz (far right), Chapter Leader, presented INMED President and CEO, Linda Pfeiffer (second from left) a check for $15,000.
"INMED Partnerships for Children is truly honored to be selected as a Sustained Funding grantee for the Healthy Babies program in Peru. We are touched by the powerful connection Dining for Women members across the nation have made both with the Healthy Babies program itself, and with the women and infants whose health and futures are being transformed by the life-saving work we are accomplishing together. We look forward to sharing the stories and photos of the mothers who gain access to vital health care and education-and of their children who are growing up healthy-with Dining for Women members over the next three years of our partnership." - Linda Pfeiffer
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 | | Sarabeth Harrelson and Pauline Munga at the Program Selection Committee Face to Face weekend last August. |
"I joined the program selection team nearly a year ago and have so loved being a part of the selection process. It's been a steep learning curve, but the other women on the team are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. Organizations have the chance to apply for a grant twice a year. They submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) which includes basic organizational and financial information in addition to a program summary. The program selection team evaluates the LOIs and then invites some of the organizations to submit a full application. In addition to looking at financial accountability and program sustainability, we also try to invite applications on diverse issues in a variety of geographical locations. Each full application is then vetted in detail.
Remember last month's eblast noting the more than 2600 volunteer hours logged by this committee so far this year? This is where most of 'em come from - this process is intense! Finally, after hours and hours of research and evaluation, the team gets together for a Face to Face weekend (travel expenses paid by team members) to decide on the final 6 programs to be featured that cycle.
I've become good friends with Google spreadsheets, spent untold hours on conference calls, and learned how to evaluate an IRS 990 form. But for me, the most important part has been the chance to work with a team of women who are also passionate about empowering women and girls living in extreme poverty. It has been an honor and I look forward to the next year." - Sarabeth Harrelson, Team Member
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Dining for Women is a giving circle. Through our members' combined dinner donations, we fund international programs for women living in extreme poverty. By educating our members about the circumstances of women in some of the poorest countries in the world, our members become agents of change.
Our Mission is to empower women and girls living in extreme poverty by funding programs that foster good health, education, and economic self-sufficiency and to cultivate educational giving circles that inspire individuals to make a positive difference through the power of collective giving.
Our Vision is to create a new paradigm for giving - collective giving on an immense scale while maintaining the intimacy of small groups with a focus on education and engaged giving.
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