Why is sponsorship needed?
Refugees flee war, poverty, and oppression with no resources and no ties back to the resources they built in their home country. In America, the social safety net keeps them in low-income housing for a few months and leaves them impoverished. In our surveys, Women of the World clients commonly report:
- Insufficient food stamp support to cover basic nutritional needs. (Food stamps also do not pay for diapers, cleaning supplies, and women’s hygienic products)
- A debt for their one-way ticket from the refugee camps. This is often the first debt many of them have ever held and is commonly the majority of their ‘disposable’ income.
- No financial ability to pay moving costs (lease break fees, security deposits) from initial low-income housing even if their are dangerous space, health or safety issues.
- A budget that best-case has equal inflows from welfare to outflows for utilities, housing, and basic needs. Most of the time, needs are put off for another time.
- This budget means there is no money for healthcare, even with subsidized co-payments, $15 for medication is a significant portion of a few hundred dollar budget.
When the job market is as tight as it is now for native English speakers with American work ethics, women refugees have few good options. Many of them will turn away from the difficult path of self-improvement and will exaggerate their mental or physical impairments to receive Social Security welfare payments. While these programs require some advancements from the refugee, the incentive to remain on welfare and not work is oftentimes greater.
What is sponsorship?
- Financial assistance to pay for necessities like buying food, medicine, hygienic products, and baby needs.
- Payment of refugee flight debt or moving expenses Education stipend to support refugee family while mother and daughter goes to school
- Online etsy.com or ebay.com store membership where refugee woman can market crafts and art products
- Job skill development and professional job placement services that support long-term employment
- Contract placement of refugee mothers for childcare needs (babysitting) or household chores (housecleaning) that supports long-term relationship
Sponsorship: change a woman’s life forever!
Our Sponsorship Program is a unique experience that builds a one-to-one relationship between you and your “sister.” A sponsor provides her sister with emotional and financial support throughout our 12-month program. Sponsors receive bi-monthly updates from their sisters and 1-on-1 intimacy unlike other support programs. Click the below button to sponsor a WoW Refugee Woman
A gift of sponsorship is a unique gift you can give to your family member or friend in place of a physical gift. This gift creates a very special, one-to-one bond between your friend or family member and a woman refugee who desperately needs her help and friendship.
Your generous gift of sponsorship on behalf of a friend or family member will provide a woman survivor of war and refugee camps with the resources she needs to move from victim to active American citizen. This gift of sponsorship offers your friend an experience like no other because she will know exactly who she is helping. In fact your friend will be corresponding with her sponsored sister – sharing, inspiring, offering encouragement and giving her the emotional support she needs to help change her life.
Click Here to Give the Gift of Sponsorship
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