In order to weave philanthropy into the lives of women and girls in our region, and help low-income women gain financial and economic security, we use and encourage advocacy, leadership, collaboration, and, of course, hope.
At my second site visit, I got the privilege of seeing how one of our Grantee Partners, CASA de Maryland, also uses those same methods as a means to their ends.
CASA’s mission is to meet the special needs of the Central American population.
One of the board members reflected on how she left everything in her homeland: friends, family, everything she knew, in the hopes of a better life in America. She read about CASA in a newspaper, and eventually became involved. With CASA’s help, she became computer literate, developed public speaking skills, and established a second home away from home. Her short story left me, and probably everyone else in the sun-filled room, feeling those same feelings you get when you hear someone talk about their struggles and eventual success.
After her, a community volunteer on the panel told her story of coming to America. Traveling from Latin America to Colorado, she landed a dry-wall job. Even though she didn’t speak English, she used her faith to keep going, and as time went by, with CASA’s help she established her own dry-wall business! She revealed the awesome news that she has a staff of 20 people, eight of which females, in a traditionally male occupation. I was glad to hear this: breaking stereotypes and raising incomes simultaneously.
CASA helped expose all the untapped potential that lied in these women.
CASA felt privileged just by our presence, and the feeling was mutual. For me, gathering under one roof and sharing stories like that reaffirms the importance of philanthropy. Despite how different we seem, coming from all these different walks of life and cultures, when we share our stories, we find out that many of us have the same hopes, dreams, fears, etc.
We want the best for our children, we want to be financially stable, we want to be able to communicate clearly with our peers.
CASA thanked us from “the bottom of their hearts,” but we thank them too, for their stories, their courage, and their audacity to hope. (I know, at the risk of sounding unoriginal and cliché, it’s the name of Barack Obama’s book, but it’s fitting here, so I’m going to use it).
While women have many successes to celebrate, there are many gaps and challenges to tackle. Just think about how many strong women are out there, dedicated to balancing out the hourglass, working to change the “tale of two cities” with philanthropic efforts.
I hear stories like CASA’s all the time, as many of us do, but each time it does something different for me. Somehow I’m never desensitized to it, each time I learn and feel something new.
