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<div>Empower Women and Girls with SWET – Support Our 2026 Vision
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<div>At Sprout Women Empowerment Trust (SWET), we believe that when women and girls thrive, entire communities transform. For over five years, SWET has been a lifeline for women and girls in Chitungwiza, Chiweshe, and surrounding areas, helping them break cycles of poverty, inequality, and exclusion. But today, our work is at risk. Due to the recent USAID policy changes and the withdrawal of our main donor from Southern Africa, we are facing an urgent financial crisis. Without immediate support, SWET’s doors may not open in January 2026. Our fundraising goal of $25,000 will cover the first quarter of activities of the year.
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<div><strong>Join us on Saturday, December 13th at 12 PM EST for a virtual presentation to hear directly from Caroline Mutimbanyoka, Director of Sprout Empowerment Trust, learn more about our work, and ask questions.  You can join us via </strong><a href="https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82848690604?pwd=DoNjcPwaibDJsTYdLRABEF3a46d8Jm.1&amp;jst=2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Zoom</strong></a>.
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<div>Our mission remains clear and more critical than ever. Our 2026 goal is to support 300 women and girls through: livelihoods and income generation—creating sustainable opportunities in agriculture, entrepreneurship, and eco-friendly innovations; financial and digital literacy—equipping women with essential tools to manage resources, build businesses, and navigate an increasingly digital world; and leadership and community empowerment—nurturing women and girls as confident leaders and advocates for social and environmental justice.
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<div>Your contribution does more than fund programs—it keeps hope alive. It sustains our dedicated team, ensures the continued existence of SWET, and enables us to keep serving women and girls who depend on our work to survive and thrive. By donating, you’re not just funding an organization—you’re investing in resilience, independence, and dignity for hundreds of women and girls determined to shape their own futures. Together, we can keep SWET’s vision alive and make 2026 a year of transformation. Because when women rise, communities flourish. Please donate today — help us keep our doors open and our mission alive.
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Empower Women & Girls: Support SWET’s 2026 Vision

<div>There has been a lot to despair about in 2025, and it can feel like there is nothing to be done about it. It feels like powerful people continue to abuse their power, and everyone else is becoming disenfranchised, isolated, and powerless.

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<div>Cesar and I have been trying to challenge this narrative by reconnecting with the communities and people who have inspired us before. Now more than ever is a time for building connection, healing, and positive action.

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<div>We are working to bring a series of women's workshops to the rural communities in San Esteban Catarina, San Vicente, El Salvador. In the fall of 2024, with the help of our friends in El Salvador, as well as the support of generous donors in our US-based community, we were able to hold two initial workshops. These events, two weeks apart, brought together a multigenerational group of women to work on techniques for internal healing and reflections with the purpose of engaging more with each other to serve and improve their community.

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<div>We had first connected with community members in San Vicente in 2009, when Cesar started working to organize a youth group that focused on implementing positive changes in their communities. Our relationship with those youth has endured over the years. Now, as young adults and community leaders, many of them want to continue to serve their community by offering the same type of leadership initiatives that had such a big impact on them. In 2024, a small group of us began to brainstorm how we could continue to strengthen community leadership on a very grassroots level.

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<div>Those initial women's workshops that we held in 2024 were a success. Women were able to open up and talk about how they had been impacted by war, family and community violence, family separation, and loss. They listened to and supported each other. Our facilitator engaged them in somatic activities that they could practice to continue with healing. As a group, they brainstormed how they could continue to support each other and contribute to the common good of their community. When asked if they wanted to continue this work in 2025, the answer was yes.

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<div><strong>We believe that healing and growth happen on the personal and communal level.</strong> We think that it is crucial to create spaces where this change is possible.

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<div>Anyone who has participated in a retreat or a workshop that has impacted them can understand the importance of this work. We want to make these types of learning opportunities accessible to women who might not access them otherwise. <strong>We invite you to be part of this work with us.</strong>

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<div>Gracias!

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<div>-Laura

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Workshops for Healing and Transformation in El Salvador

<div>Juan Ramirez and his wife Denise and their children are a part of our community. Their children attend Pleasant Ridge Montessori. Juan does yard work for a number of people in our community, including me.
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<div>In February 2024, Juan went back to Mexico in preparation for getting his green card.  Denise and the children remained in Cincinnati, where Denise has done her best to keep the business going. With her temporary workers' visas expiring at the end of October, her only source of income is drying up.
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<div>While the family was told the green card process could take up to a year, they had the support of Juan's  employer and testimonials from people in the community. They thought this might speed up the process. 
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<div>As each month ticks by the financial strains are growing. Denise is preparing to sell the family's pickup truck, and it's getting harder to pay the monthly rent and bills. 
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<div>We’ve started a GoFundMe page to help Denise and her family bridge the gap until Juan can return home. The funds will go toward basic living expenses like rent, utilities, and ensuring the children can stay at PRM, where they have found stability. Every contribution, no matter the size, will make a huge difference for this family as they navigate these difficult times.
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<div>Please consider donating and sharing their story with others in our community. Together, we can help keep them on their feet until their family is reunited.
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Bridge the Gap for Denise and Kids Until Juan Comes Home

<div>New Roots Urban Farm serves as a safe space and steady source of healthy food for North St. Louis community members facing food insecurity. Our farm has been devastated by a fire that took place at Skate Liborious on June 28th. Our crop and soil are contaminated and damaged from extreme levels of soot from the fire and toxins from the burnt old buildings next door. We are unable to grow safe produce to share with our low-income Black and Brown neighbors at this time. Our greenhouse has also been damaged by the rapid response efforts of the fire fighting crew and we have lost several chicks and young birds as a result.
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<div>We are in dire need of support to rebuild and remediate our beloved farm. Raised funds will go towards testing our soil; relocating our chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits; rebuilding our greenhouse; sequestering and removing toxins from our soil; and activating a secondary growing space to meet the food security needs of our community.
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<div>New Roots Urban Farm serves as pillar in providing farming education and resources to low-income Black and Brown community members in North St. Louis seeking to grow food for themselves and their families. We are committed to our mission now more than ever as our community is feeling the effects of economic disinvestment, food apartheid, and environmental racism. Please support New Roots in moving forward through this challenging time. Antajuan Adams Sr. (Farmer Twan), organizer of this fundraiser and Lead Farmer at New Roots Urban Farm, will guide the rebuilding process. Stephanie Aria (Mina Aria), beneficiary of the fundraiser and Assistant Farmer and Operations Director at New Roots Urban Farm, will receive, manage and direct donated funds to the purposes laid out above.
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<div>All our love,
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<div>New Roots Urban Farm Collective
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Emergency Fund: Rebuild New Roots Urban Farm

Dear friends and family of Jamarion Washington, this GoFundMe is being set up to help offset medical expenses.  Jamarion was involved in a hit and run accident at Gilpen and Victory Pkwy on November 11, 2020 and has since been fighting for his life. If you can find it in your heart please help us to help him.

Support Jamarion

<strong>Allison McWhorter McGrath;</strong> Loving wife, caring mother, dedicated daughter, community champion, everlasting friend.  We all remember Allison in our own unique way with the common thread of the way she has changed our lives for the positive.  Because of who she was in our lives, who she is in our memories and who she will be in her legacy, let us all contribute in a meaningful way to secure funding for her family.  Whether it is leveraged for immediate needs and/or invested for the education of Maddy and Colin, let us not just reach the goal set but surpass it.    <br /><br /><img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/53221922_1607719237537072_r.jpeg" alt="53221922_1607719237537072_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" /><img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/53221922_1607719255893545_r.jpeg" alt="53221922_1607719255893545_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" />

In Memory of Allison McWhorter McGrath

<img src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/50658052_1598213854211079_r.jpeg" width="100%" media_type="3" alt="50658052_1598213854211079_r.jpeg" />Garen, Taylor, and newborn baby Graham lost their home in the CZU complex fire. Taylor, an RN, recently gave birth to their first baby and lost most of her belongings, as well as baby clothes and gear. Garen works for Santa Cruz Mountain Bikes and has been renovating  the two homes on their property since they moved in 2 years ago. Nothing remains. Like all young homeowners in our county, they are faced with steep mortgage payments, student loans, and will soon have to pay rent. We love these wonderful mountain neighbors and integral members of the mountain biking community. We want to help them  manage their bills while rehoming, rebuilding, and bonding with their new baby. Thank you so much for any resources you can send their way!

Help Garen, Taylor & Baby Graham rebuild

Life is precious and changes fast. Beth VanWassenhove is a mom, a researcher,  and teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio. In May of 2020 Beth will graduate with an EdD in Educational Leadership from Northern Kentucky University.  But right now.. she's fighting for her life. <br /><br />Beth went to the doctor on a Thursday thinking she had the flu... but instead her primary physician ordered her to the E.R. immediately. Within hours she learned she had cancer. By Friday morning doctors confirmed her bone marrow was full of leukemia. On Valentine's day she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. "AML" is a blood cancer, and once active is relentless in damage.  Within 48 hours of going to the doctor, she was on the 14th floor of Good Samaritan Hospital, and receiving her first dose of chemotherapy along with multiple blood transfusions. <br /><br />This new normal is a shock, and the reality is it will be a significant financial burden. Beth is a single Mom to 7 year old Henry. Beth's first stay at the hospital will be for one month, but could be longer depending on how her body responds to treatment.  After being released, she will need to return for chemotherapy once a month for 5 days at a time.. indefinitely.   At a time when every ounce of energy and focus should be on her battle, these unexpected expenses for her fight are the distraction and stress she does not need right now.  Your generosity, whatever it may be.. is  deeply appreciated.  <br /><br />She has the love and unwavering support of Team VW who remains VW strong, as well as that of her dissertation sisterhood and an army  of friends who support her, Henry and Henry's dad, Glenn. <br />As a side note, Beth lost her father to Multiple Myeloma cancer in 2017,  after a 5-year fight. She is no stranger to navigating a winding river of pain and hell. From that incredible loss comes gratitude for life, and living each day awake and in awe. Through her fight, Beth will celebrate victories every day no matter how small they may be.

Beth VanWassenhove Fights Leukemia

Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund

My name is Leslie Hershberger and last week, my friend, Rev. Paula Jackson, posted a story on Facebook about her friend, Hugo. As I read the story, I felt as if I'd been sucker punched. Here is what she wrote:<br /><br />"My friend Hugo has been working day and night so that his wife and little girl could come back to the US to reunite their family. Tonight he finally was in Atlantla to welcome them. But at the airport, Immigration would not let them in. Cesia had the papers and said she was asking for asylum. But they would not let her stay. They would let the daughter stay, but only if she became a ward of the State of Georgia, separated then from both her mother and her father.<br /><br />So, in unimaginable grief, and nearly bankrupting the family, they had to purchase tickets to send the mother and child back to Guatemala, to the extortion and violence they have been trying to escape. A family's dreams were crushed tonight. Please pray for them as they return, and for Hugo as he drives back to Cincinnati tomorrow, alone."<br /><br />I have been reunited with my grandchild who was born in Central America while my daughter was working at a non-profit. I remember welcoming him home and experiencing the mix of joy and gratitude that he would be living here in the states along with the sadness that his Salvadoran family had to say goodbye to this beloved child. I wondered about families separated from one another who do not have the benefit of dual citizenship like my grandson.<br /><br />I've visited these countries where families do their best to raise families in a climate of frightening violence. I have shared meals with them as they tell their stories of separated parents and children. I've experienced the sense of overwhelm and like many before me have wondered: "The problem is so huge. What can I do?" <br /><br />So, like many of you, I've given myself over to the ripple effect which says:<br /><br />"I alone cannot change the world. But I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples."<br /><br />I wrote to Rev. Paula to ask if Hugo would accept money to pay the airfare.  (You can't imagine the amount of time and work $2500 is to these families). Paula talked to Hugo who said he would want to respect Cesia's wishes. Cesia responded to Paula and is deeply touched that there are people who want to help.<br /><br />The money will be put in the Church of Our Savior (La Iglesia de Nuestro Salvador)  discretionary fund and Rev. Paula  Jacksonwill see they are reimbursed.  I trust her completely. Her integrity, advocacy and her commitment to dignity of immigrants is deep and wide.<br /><br />No amount is too small. <br /><br />Also, if you have a moment, please ask your congress person to please move to enact immigration reform, here is a link:  <a href="http://cqrcengage.com/episcopal/app/write-a-letter?1&amp;engagementId=77285#.VNQrbW-ITG8.facebook"><a href="http://cqrcengage.com/episcopal/app/write-a-letter?1&amp;engagementId=77285#.VNQrbW-ITG8.facebook" target="_blank" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://cqrcengage.com/episcopal/app/write-a-letter?1&amp;engagementId=77285#.VNQrbW-ITG8.facebook</a><br /><br />I</a>f you'd like more information on immigration reform, here is the link to the American Immigration Council. My son worked at the council and I learned so many things from our conversations:<br /><br /> <a href="http://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/"><a href="http://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/" target="_blank" class="" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/</a><br /><br />P</a>lease give yourself over to the Ripple Effect and donate  today. Deep bows of gratitude for your generosity.

Laura Hershberger

Laura Hershberger

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