by Mary W.

What does every family need? Money! Finishing up on the FAWCO family theme, “what every family needs is money,” - the FAWCO Foundation has grants and awards for all FAWCO members, which of course, means you and/ or your family and/or favorite charity. The FAWCO Foundation, which is FAWCO’s philanthropic arm, enables individual clubs to nominate a charity near and dear to their hearts for annual Development Grants; gives Educational Awards to members and their children to help support their personal educational goals; and, maintains the Emergency Relief Fund which is activated in response to disasters anywhere in the world. Recent examples for the Emergency Relief Fund include the building of the FAWCO House following the tsunami in Sri Lanka and the rebuilding of a study center at Dillard University in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Development Grants

These are available through clubs for many kinds of charitable organizations. In 2002 the AWCH nominated the Children of Cali, Columbia, for a FAWCO Foundation Development Grant and the Children of Cali were awarded a $5000 grant! These grants are available for all kinds of charities. One development grant that was sponsored in part by AWC Auckland and nominated by AWC Stockholm, in the amount of $3500, went to the Grandma2Grandma project in Tanzania that was discussed at the Annual General Meeting. The grant will be used to help “bibis” (grandmothers) educate women and girls in their communities on HIV/AIDS prevention and for purchase of supplies for their handicrafts.

A second grant of $3500 went to Women for Girls, the Mill Project located in Senegal. This grant is for skills for life. When women are given opportunities for economic activity, they can participate in community decision-making. In a small, dynamic village in Senegal, the women want to improve their lives. Grinding grain into flour is the most labor intensive work the women do. A mill would create extra time and allow the women to receive the necessary training in literacy, numeracy and management.

The grant will be used to purchase the grain mill. If you have a favorite cause, go to www.fawco.org, click on the black bar where it says Philanthropy, scroll down to the FAWCO Foundation, then click on Development Grants to learn more about the different categories of awards.

The Foundation Awards Program recognizes and honors academic excellence and all-around achievement of the children of FAWCO members and FAWCO members themselves. (FAWCO AWCH rep must sign your application)

Every year these awards are given to help the pursuit of higher education overseas and in the US. Amounts vary according to funds raised. One of this year’s awards is the Special Challenges Award, a $3,000 award sponsored by Chilterns AWC that was given to Jacqueline Elizabeth Lynch. She was afflicted with encephalitis at age three, and despite comprehension difficulties, she maintains a 3.5 G.P.A. and is an editor of her high school paper. She plans a career in journalism. Her mother is a member of AW Surrey.

IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT 100% OF ALL CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CLUBS AND INDIVIDUALS FOR THESE GRANTS AND AWARDS GO DIRECTLZ TO THE RECIPIENT – NO DEDUCTIONS ARE MADE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES BY THE FAWCO FOUNDATION.

Also, regardless of whether a club or member has contributed to the Foundation, members and their children are entitled to apply.

What I learned at the conference in Seoul, Korea is that some clubs are members of FAWCO just to take advantage of the grants and awards programs. Read through the grants and awards on the Foundation website.

Either you, your children or your favorite charity could benefit financially from the membership of the AWCH in FAWCO. Along with my presentation at the Annual General Meeting, some articles that I have written and what is available on the FAWCO website, I hope that everyone has at least a sense of some of FAWCO’s purpose and value.

Why is it so important for AWCHamburg to belong to FAWCO?

I hope you all have a good sense of that by now, but just to summarize - by participating in a larger network, our club benefits from a wealth of experience, creative ideas, friendship and support. At Seoul, our introduction to the conference was concluded with a question: So what is FAWCO?

Friends (I would add Family)
Around the World
Working Together
Creating Miracles
One by One!

I regret that my injury impairs my ability to write such that I cannot adequately fulfill my duties as the AWCH FAWCO representative. Although I am resigning the official position, having caught “FAWCO fever”, I intend to continue to volunteer my time (if not my hand!) in the pursuit of FAWCO initiatives. I would like to thank the AWCH for giving me the opportunity to learn more about our Mother organization and I look forward to working with my FAWCO sisters (and brothers!).

originally published in Currents June/July 2008