Women of the Capital Park Empowerment Project attend a sewing class

It all started during the summer of 2010, in Columbus, Ohio. The Women of Capital Park apartment community had enough of the violence. But instead of mobilizing out of fear, they came together, empowered. Following an intense summer of violence at the apartment community, a group of Somali women formed the Capital Park Women's Empowerment Project. Capital Park is home to 380 households, 360 of them are Somali.  

The women then partnered with Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association. CMAA was founded in 1980 by a group of Cambodian refugees to meet the needs of Southeast Asians, and all other refugees being settled in Franklin County, Ohio. CMAA provides recent immigrants with English as a Second Language (ESL) courses, employment counseling, and interpretation/translation, among other services. CMAA also helps integrate new immigrants into American culture and workplace etiquette.

Ohio is home to the second largest Somali immigrant population in the United States. Following the collapse of the Somali government, and subsequent civil war, the United States began to admit Somali immigrants into the country in greater numbers. CMAA has a long history of partnering with Somali community organizations. The first initiative for the women of Capital Park was to improve safety, and stem the violence taking root in the community. CMAA was there to help. Continue reading the article here.

Caring for Creation: Harmonizing Catholic Social Teaching and Feminist Values

by Anna Zaros, Development Liaison

In college, I interned for one summer at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. While I worked in the International Justice and Peace office, my desk was located right next to the Care for Creation office. The two offices' materials mingled together on the bookshelves, and I quickly came to learn that Care for Creation was a principle of Catholic Social Teaching, equally important as human dignity and option for the poor. I grew to understand that caring for creation is both a way for us to honor the gifts our Creator has bestowed upon us, as well as a moral imperative in an age where we systematically harm and destroy those same gifts.

My understanding of Care for Creation deepened, however, in my next year of studies. In that year I took a class where I encountered the concept of "ecofeminism." Ecofeminism lays before us the connections between ecology and feminism. Ecofeminism argues that centuries held patriarchal views of domination - of man over nature and of man over women are interconnected. How we treat women is an indication of how we treat nature, and vice versa. Continue reading the article here. 

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We mourn the loss of Sr. Kaye Ashe, the first board president of Mary's Pence. Sr. Kaye is well known for her continuous work for justice and equality, especially for women within the Catholic Church. Her influence continues to inspire us here at Mary's Pence and we are deeply grateful for her contributions to our world. To learn more about this inspiring woman, read this article in National Catholic Reporter.

Association of U.S. Catholic Priests National Assembly

Mary's Pence - Who Are We?

We are a small organization with a big vision.  We want women in the Americas living in poverty to have a say and a hand in how poverty can be alleviated and social equity achieved.  Therefore we invest in local women who are creating models to increase women's economic status and improve their status in their community.  We look for models that foster women working together, to learn from each other, support each other, and explore new ideas.  We fund women in North, Central and South America.

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