Matawi Inc
Rating: 4.8 stars 20 20 reviews 2,914
Address:
PO Box 1119 Lewiston ME 04243 USA
Mission:
Matawi supports education, civic engagement, and leadership development in the global refugee community. Through a range of programs and initiatives, we seek to responsively identify and nurture strengths, skills, and potential for growth across the diaspora. With an awareness that refugee needs and contexts are in constant flux, we currently emphasize facilitation of access to higher education for young women; the gathering and sharing of life-stories; and cultural brokering between resettling populations and local community agencies.
Geographic areas served:
Dadaab, Kenya and South-Central Maine
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Reviews for Matawi Inc
This organization is an absolute inspiration- from the mission it carries out to the heartfelt love and energy its founders put into their cause. I support Matawi because I too believe everyone deserves an education. It's been a pleasure watching it bloom and cultivate over the years.
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I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
Finding inspiration among the stories I have heard.
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
Observing the productivity and success of Matawi, I believe the organization is doing extremely well. I say they keep doing what they're doing!
I lived in a refugee camp in Kenya , I met matawi group by then called female schollership .By then i was seeking for schollership hence applied for it and many of my friends did the same.Fortunately i got a scholership in canada but friends who got interviewed did not make due to lack of financial support for Matawi .Dec 2010 my friend in Acadia University went for a fund raising event for Matawi and the good news is Muna ,my former class mate got sponsered in one of the kenyan top Universities
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I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
My former class mate Muna got sponsered by this organization after seeking for sholership for more than 4 years,therefore i feel if this organization get sponsers it will make a change in women's life
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
i would ask more fund raisers to come and also women right advocators and Universities,colledges to come in for this cruciaL and life inspiring event
I have expreinced a lot with Matawi Organisations. They tried to get me scholarship in the US but futile because of luck of enough funds. I was a refugee girl.
I beleive this organisation will help girls from the refugee camps if given the funds.
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I have personally expreinced the results of this organisation because they paid for the expenses of my SAT exam test and other things like travelling expenses despite their funding problems.
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
If I had to make changes in this organisation, I would give any thing possible that will make them help and bring positive change to the refugee girls I have seen the situation they are in. " shading light on the lives of girls"
I am very proud to serve on the Board of Matawi. I have had many volunteer and work experiences with international non-profits and can say with confidence that Matawi is a model of how to merge a challenging mission with concrete programmatic achievements. The result is an organization that fosters education and leadership opportunities in the global refugee community. This year, the organization hosted an incredible function in NYC that generated conversation and a deeper awareness of the tremendous barrier that young women in refugee camps face in accessing higher education. It was an incredibly moving and effective event.
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I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
It was a great pleasure to have the chance to meet a young woman who has benefited from Matawi's support this past year.
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
make financial resources more plentiful so that they could expand their programmatic work.
I took part in Matawi's big benefit in the winter. It's a wonderful organization with an amazing goal. And I like that the charity puts everything into the scholarships and runs with basically no operating costs. I really hope people support it and it grows into something giant. Increasing opportunity and education for refugee women is a fantastic thing to be a part of.
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They've raised enough money to send a student to a college in Kenya this year.
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
I'd love to see this young organization's public profile increase.
I got involved with Matawi through a friendship with one of the group's founders. I volunteered for the Zadie Smith/Nathan Englander event in early December 2010. It is an inspiring organization with an important mission.
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I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
I was able to meet many of the organization's donors and volunteers.
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
Continue to publicize the organization's good work to increase the number of people who could give.
I am an Africanist and a development aid, humanitarian aid, human rights, and peace operations scholar. I have felt for a long time that education and women's empowerment play critical roles in all of these areas. Matawi is an organization I believe in because it focuses on its beneficiaries and does not attempt to impose values on them as a condition for help, and they do this with a view toward providing education and assistance for women from some of the most challenging backgrounds in the world.
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I haven't, personally, but I have come to value the organization's work-- especially as so many organizations trying to do "good" things or work on education or empowerment of have highly problematic approaches because they have their own agenda that trumps the needs and desires of their beneficiaries. It is important to me that I have organizations with high standards that makes an effort to consult their beneficiaries on what it is they need and want.
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
The first thing that comes to mind is perhaps integrating the organization and the program in a way--- in other words, finding more folks from Dadaab that could work for the organization after a period of education/training. But the board of directors is impressive, and if I remember correctly they do have at least one Somali working for them. Don't really have changes to suggest.
Reading about Matawi and understanding the passion behind it made it an easy decision to donate. I was very impressed after reading 'They Were Very Beautiful: Such Things Are' and knowing it's connection to Matawi.
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I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
Reading their updates, keeping up to date
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
Can't make any suggestions at this time.
It is deeply rewarding to watch this non-profit operate in the-- more than just capable-- skilled hands of its founders. Matawi makes a tangible difference in the lives of those it benefits, also serving the greater good in a way that has the potential to change entire generations. What is perhaps most incredible is that its founders find ways to foster the organization on both the beneficiary and donor sides while remaining true to its core values: education, cooperation, and empowerment.
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I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
Through reports and attendance at events
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
n/a
i have served as a board member and have watched the continued growth and success of matawi as a non profit. since the work on this non profit began, the dadaab refugee camp has almost doubled in size; thus remaining the largest refugee complex in the world. i am so gratified that there has been, during the past year, a growing awareness of matawi and continued progress and success in funding education scholarship. with refugee communities expanding all over the world, the growth and significance of matawi will also parallel this trend worldwide, establishing a framework of hope for refugee girls and women desperately in need of education and opportunity beyond the confines of camp life.
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I've personally experienced the results of this organization in...
meeting one of the refugee women who has been educated through a matawi scholarship. i have learned of the enormous difference this opportunity has made in her life. i have watched as the growing awareness of matawi impacts new volunteers and contributors.
If I had to make changes to this organization, I would...
hope that more and more volunteers become involved so that the board can be enlarged and the fundraising efforts and opportunity for additional scholarships increases
