Help Immigrant Women Launch A Worker Cooperative

Hola, I am Ruth. I belong to and am fundraising for a group of 15 inspiring immigrant women from El Salvador, Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. We are launching a self-owned and self-governed green cleaning worker cooperative in Kingston, NY which we have named Blooming Queens of Clean.

https://www.bloomingqueensofclean.com/

We are women who left our countries of origin due to the prevalence of violence, drought and poverty. Most of us undertook harrowing and unfathomable journeys to create better lives for ourselves and our children.

Ulster Immigrant Defense Network (https://ulsterimmigrantdefensenetwork.org/) created an initiative and received funding to help us establish a worker cooperative. Seasoned Gives (https://www.seasonedgives.org/) provided the business training, development and mentorship.

Now we are ready to launch and move towards economic mobility and an opportunity to move out of poverty.

We want to have the soundest start to our future as businesswomen.

Most worker-owners pool their money to cover business start-up costs. Due to our economic situations, we are only able to contribute $25 each.

To get our business off to a healthy start and point us in the direction of sustainable success, will you lend financial support for this first year? Your donations will go towards startup costs such as replenishment of supplies, insurance, transportation and driving lessons (right now only 3 out of 15 women have drivers licenses).

Your help will make an enormous difference to our success and self-empowerment.

Your generosity will help us fulfill our vision of expanded work opportunities, fair and competitive wages and a living that will allow us and our children to not only move out of poverty but to thrive.

Here are testimonials from our first jobs.

The housecleaners from Blooming Queens were wonderful. My house has never been this clean. It's sparkling. They went far and beyond my expectations, and I will be having them back again.

--JC, West Saugerties

We use Cleaning Blooming Queens to deep clean our space in Uptown Kingston. They are cleaning magicians — so thorough and meticulous. We also love that they use eco-friendly cleaning supplies. -- Barnfox

If you know of anyone who would like to donate a used car to the cooperative, please message me.

Heartfelt thanks.