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Maryom Ana Al Wadi

Sisterstar Maryom Ana Al-Wadi (a.k.a., Marianna Waddy), is recovering from a recent fall after a seizure caused by an inoperable brain tumor. Presently, Sister Maryom can no longer live alone and needs 24 hour care to return home. She only qualifies for 2-4 hours a day with CA State In-home Supportive Services. This is inadequate. She is miserable at the hospital where she has been since the beginning of September and is no longer eating. 

Already thin, this response to the environment is counterproductive to her healing. Sister Maryom says if she can get home where she can have proper nutrition, she will be able to heal. She does not believe the Western protocol which is contaminating her clean system will heal her. 

Her attending physician(s) agrees that Sister Maryom is miserable and is not thriving; however, she cannot manage at home without help. She has had three serious falls in two months: August - Sept. This is how her arm got broken twice. 

Born in Illinois and later growing up in Los Angeles County, daughter of Black Arts Movement pioneer, Ruth G. Waddy, Ph.D., Ms. Al-Wadi moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles to study at San Francisco State College. She served as a leading pioneer in the black student movement at San Francisco State University which established the first Black Student Union on an American campus and led to the resultant broader student movement that established Black Studies courses then Black Studies Programs at American institutions of higher education. The College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University is the one exception; there are 5 departments: Africana Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Latina/Latino Studies, and Race and Residence Studies.
Her involvement and that of her colleagues came to have extraordinary local, regional, national, and international implications for all students of color and institutions of higher education.

Sister Maryom served as the first Black Student Union President at SFSU after playing a leading role in its transition from the Negro Student Association. She also set the pace for black student activism on campus by aggressively pursuing and achieving entry into the seat of power governing student activities and expenditures, the Associated Students of San Francisco State University where she served to further give voice, funding, and power to the needs and interests of black students. Ms. Al-Wadi participated in such notable related efforts on campus and in the community including the Black Arts and Culture Series, the Experimental College, the Nation of Islam, San Francisco's Black Arts/West Theatre and movement, and affordable housing advocacy groups in San Francisco’s Western Addition. 

Here is a video of her during the student strike 50 years ago.  It starts at 7:01

(At press conference: Maryom Ana Al Wadi (speaker), Benny Stewart (moderator), Inez Andre (speaker), Roger Alvarado, Leroy Goodwin, Terry Collins). 

https://diva.sfsu.edu/ collections/sfbatv/bundles/ 187199

Ms. Al-Wadi speaks often of the difficulty she has had in her 86 years, a black woman not only displaced in predominantly white spaces, but seen as a disruptive presence when all she wants is an opportunity to exercise her right as a citizen to democracy and of course her human and civil rights. 

As she says, the war is not over, so let’s help Sister Maryom regain her strength and independence to continue to fight on the battlefield she loves: education and teach at the college she helped found: Ethnic Studies at SFSU.

Update Oct. 11, 2017: Sister Maryom Ana is now at home building her strength thanks to the support of her wonderful friends. Thanks so much. Please keep her in your prayers. Feel free to call her. 

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  • FRANCENA TURNER
    • $50 
    • 6 yrs
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Organizer and beneficiary

Wanda Sabir
Organizer
Oakland, CA
Abdul Hassan
Beneficiary

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