Service Appreciation Grants

The Women’s Wisdom: Women in Action Service Appreciation Grants program, established by Dr. Nahid Angha, Founder of the Sufi Women Organization, is dedicated to recognizing and supporting the impactful work of a woman or women-led organization in rural communities. Nominations for honorees are solicited and invited solely by the Women in Action program, and a panel of volunteer judges carefully reviews each submission. Grant recipients are announced annually in July, with awards ranging from $500-$1000.

The Service Appreciation Grants recognize and support individuals and organizations that have demonstrated outstanding commitment to improving the quality of life for women through impactful social programs. Grants focus on the following key areas:

• • • • Equity: Promoting gender equality in both public and private sectors and expanding employment opportunities for women.

      • Healthcare: Ensuring the physical, mental and environmental well-being of women and girls.

      • Education: Advancing women’s and girls’ right to access education.

      • Human Rights: Advocating for the reduction of poverty among women, including the development of effective systems for conflict resolution and social justice.
        

The four key focus areas of the SWO Service Appreciation Grants are designed to foster systemic change in support of the global advancement of women. These grants extend far beyond providing financial assistance to individual recipients; they serve as catalysts for transformative journeys that create lasting and rippling impacts in the lives of the women and their communities.

Equity Impact Summary: Grantees’ projects have benefited over 350 women and girls, promoting gender equity, advocating for marginalized voices, and fostering environmental and social justice.

Equity and Economic Development
Ruth Nalyanya, Kenya
(Honoree 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, & 2024)

Through the grassroots-based Peace Path Development Initiative, Ruth operates at the village level with the mobilization of rural women from two villages in Kenya to undertake economic activities such as planting and harvesting crops of beans, maize and sugarcane. Ruth’s priority project for 2022 was chicken farming for meat with the members of the Eshirandala Mirembe and Wekhonye Women Group Initiative. Her work has made women less vulnerable to male manipulation, as poverty in the households has been linked to wide-spread women- and gender-based violence. The objectives are to strengthen the role of the women in their communities and promote the dignity of the women and girls through sustainable economic empowerment activities. The WWWA grants from 2019, 2021, 2022 benefited 40 women from the two villages each year.

Ruth and the groups have strategically realigned their 2024 focus to concentrating on table banking, sugarcane farming, and tree growing. These core projects have demonstrated financial stability and community benefits.

Equity Property Ownership
Despina Namwembe of Kampala, Uganda

Gender Equity and Justice
Itaf Awad, Dabbouriya, Galilee

Itaf Awad helped establish the Dabbouriya Village Forum of Women, a committee of 15 women within a wider community who work on issues of social justice and equality in order to promote the status of the community’s women. Itaf’s voluntary work in Jenin helps women facing very difficult conditions given the Israeli military occupation and its impact on impoverishing their community. She has created an environment for compassionate listening by holding stress-related exercise workshops giving direct and immediate help for the women most in need. The 2018 WWWA grant has benefited 45 Palestinian women and in 2019 benefited 55 Palestinian women.

Equity
Denan Project, Ethiopia

A micro loan program through the Denan Project, whose volunteer members secure necessary resources for highly disadvantaged people. This microloan is for a group of 10 women who help impoverished communities become self-sustainable with resources to provide health care, education, and other critical assistance.

Healthcare Impact Summary: Grantees have reported improvement for over 350 women and girls, particularly in underserved populations, through expanded access to essential services, preventative care, and mental health support.

Food Access and Nutrition
Munkaila Amina Sanders, Ghana
(Honoree 2022 & 2023)

The Yendi Project, a grassroots project organized by Munkaila “Amina” Sanders serves women in the Ghanaian northern region (Dagomba, Mamprusi, and Konkomba areas) where bread is a staple food, but is scarce and expensive in these rural areas. The decreased access to bread is an ongoing issue, and girls walk miles to buy daily bread for the village. Amina’s Yendi Project (named for the village Amina is from) teaches baking skills by holding classes and helping with the construction of ovens in the villages for selected girls and women. 12 Women and girls benefited from the WWWA Grant in the 4-day classes. This project has the potential to nutritionally affect the lives of many people and to be transformative for the people of the villages around Yendi town.

“The SWO Service Appreciation Grant has been applied to many areas of our bread making training program,
contributing to the empowerment of 40 women in rural Northern Ghana. We, at The Yendi Project,
sincerely appreciate the generous support of the Sufi Women’s Organization. We are making a difference.”
– Amina Sanders

Mental Health Support
Tecla Namachanja, Kenya
(Honoree 2021 & 2022)

Through the Shalom Centre for Counseling and Development, a Kenyan NGO, that provides five-day healing circle meetings for young, affected women in the Chelebei, Chongeiwo location of Mt. Elgon, Tecla has been responding to relational, structural, and traumatic needs of women in communities affected by violent conflicts. These women are identified and mobilized by a peace mother and a member of the local peace committee. The WWWA grants awarded to Tecla benefited 40 participants for 2021 and 2022 in each of the healing circles most affected from their target group. These five-day healing circle meetings create and hold trusted and safe spaces for these women to become aware of their dark traumatizing past, and to confront and process it as they embark on their healing journey.

Patient Recovery and Heath Equity
Isabelle Kamariza, Rwanda

Isabelle Kamariza is the Founder and President of Solid’Africa, a non-profit organization operating in Rwanda since 2011. Her mission is to help vulnerable patients in public hospitals by providing food, hygienic products and other services, with the goal to accelerate the patient recovery process, preserve patient dignity, and promote equity. She was the recipient of the Young African Women Leaders Forum Award, a CYRWA (Celebrating Young Rwandan Achievers) awardee. Sufi Women Organization grants helped to provide basic needs, food and water to patients in one of Rwanda’s hospitals.

Healthcare Grantee: “With the grant, we were able to provide healthcare for
over 200 individuals in rural areas whee access to care was previously non-existent.”

Education Impact Summary: SWO grants have aided grantees in implementing more programs that improve educational outcomes in their communities, providing tutoring and holistic support to over 670 underserved children and adults.

Education, Art and Equity
Solange Aquino, Portugal
(Honoree 2018, 2023 & 2024)

Solange Aquino helps African immigrant families and children. She has developed with a projects Youth on the Move and THEATERE, which help to fight against poverty for a population of mostly young girls. The programs also develop volunteer activities and education within the community to care for small children while their mothers attended literacy classes. Solange continues to work mainly with women and young people to raise awareness on gender equity, domestic violence, and dating violence. These programs promote learning, provide empowerment activities, and promote self-esteem and community.

“The grants have been extremely useful in working with 45 young African mothers and children
in parenting training. We now plan to work with 20 young people holding healing and
informational sessions on bullying prevention, dating violence, promoting
healthy and responsible sexuality, women’s health care, and prevention of addictive behaviors.”
– Solange Aquino

Education Access
Jane Keji Alex, South Sudan

Jane Keji Alex as a passion and strong work ethic that moved her to the social workspace where she serves rural communities to uplift and empower HIV positive women and children who have been affected by the protracted war in South Sudan. WWWA grants have helped her to support women through adult education and enroll girls to join schools that provide vocational training for girls who have gone through war trauma, including rape. Jane founded Wipe My Tears Foundation (WTF) together with a diverse group of other rural women from different ethnicities and religions. These are women who have hope in change and have experienced different challenging situations during and after war.

Education
Fatima Sheriff Alhassan, Nigeria

Fatima Sheriff Alhassan courageously promotes and advocates for displaced women and children as a result of insurgency in the Borno state. With help of the Sufi Women Organizations’s WWWA grant, Fatima founded a free school, which began with 20 students in 2016 and grew to benefit 663 women and children. Fatima has played a vital role in mobilizing the community to learn through education and promoting good nutrition, hygiene, and awareness of sexual abuse.

Education
Rihabul Aulad Integrated Islamic School, Nigeria

FRihabul Aulad Integrated Islamic School was founded in 2014 by Hajiya Ladi Shuaibu Yunus. As a widow who deeply valued both spiritual and academic empowerment, her mission was to establish an institution that harmonizes faith and education, nurturing students’ growth in knowledge and character. The school serves as a beacon of hope and progress, particularly for orphans, women, and underserved communities. It aims to offer a nurturing environment where students can flourish, and operates across four main sections: Primary Education, Secondary Education (preparing students for higher academic pursuits while nurturing their Islamic identity), Islamiyya Section (offering in-depth Islamic studies), Women’s Weekend Program.  

Educational Impact Grantee: “This grant has allowed us to develop mentorship programs
that are closing the achievement gap in our village schools.”

Human Rights Impact Summary: With the support of SWO grants, over 200 individuals benefited from initiatives focused on advancing human rights, emphasizing poverty reduction, women’s empowerment, and sustainable development.

Human Rights, Education
Jane Anyango of Kibera, Nairobi 

Jane’s organization, Polycom Girls, began as a self-help group formed by young women determined to protect their daughters from sexual exploitation and violence while also pursuing economic empowerment for women themselves. The program addresses the unique challenges faced by women in the Kibera Slums. Recently, Polycom Girls launched a new strategic plan focused on intergenerational growth, where the older generation will pass the baton to the younger generation while fostering cross-generational communication and learning.

Human Rights and Refugees
Umayma, Malta
(Honoree 2023 & 2024)

Umayma directs the Migrant Women’s Association Emergency Support Project in Malta. From January 2023 to the present, and with the Sufi Women Organization Service Appreciation Grant, the Migrant Women’s Association Malta (MWAM) has successfully provided social support to asylum-seeking and refugee women and their families in Malta. Over 25 percent of these women are victims of sexual or gender-based violence (SGBV) who have shared their stories with MWAM, while the rest could be at risk of SGBV, especially as they struggle to overcome poverty due to the fact that the majority of them are unemployed, married early, between the ages of 21-27 with more than three children, or have received less than a primary school education.

Migrant Women’s Association of Malta has launched a new project in 2024 called “Kids Happy Space,” with the primary objective of providing support to children of asylum seekers, refugees, and migrant families who have been impacted by violence and poverty. 

Human Rights and Economic Viability
Lilian Morsay and Peace Mothers, Sierra Leone

In partnership with US-based foundation Catalyst of Peace, Fambul Tok realized that after the war, women were confronted with the challenges of dealing with the effects of trauma related to gender-based violence, sexual assault, deprivation from poverty, and the lack of opportunities to rebuild their lives. During the post war reconciliation phase, community women were encouraged to organize themselves into formidable groups for progressive engagements that would have bearing on peaceful coexistence in their communicates, and to mobilize to give voice and support women to engage in livelihood initiatives that provide a platform for them to collectively thrive economically and help restore their dignity. At a gathering in 2009, women present decided to name the group Peace Mothers to serve as a women’s support network. Local chiefs and community leaders have shown a high level of willingness to support members of Peace Mothers to realize their leadership and economic potential in communities. The organization of women into Peace Mothers Groups in communities is key in the “fambul tok” philosophy of peace building in Sierra Leone. This grant supports Peace Mothers Groups in Benduma Village in Bagruwa Chiefdom Moyamba district in scaling up their community farming initiatives.

Human Rights
Dima Samman, Jerusalem

Dima Samman is a Palestinian-Jerusalemite novelist and human rights activist. Dima was born and raised in occupied Jerusalem. She is currently the Director General of the Palestinian Ministry of Education. She believes that through education women can change their lives, and that young men must be educated in order to change society toward the better. The WWWA grant awarded to Dima was used to provide retreats to help a great number of women to learn to express their problems, their challenges and feelings through writing.

With every grant, we plant seeds of hope,
nurturing the future of communities and the dignity of every human soul.

Thank you for your interest in our grant nomination process. To learn more about what we fund and support, please review the overview above. We accept nominations by invitation only. For any additional questions please contact the International Association of Sufism.

There is a 2 step nomination process. Step one (1) is to complete the general nomination.