What is PAIRWN?
History
PAIRWN is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, grassroots community service organization dedicated to the well-being of immigrant and refugee women and their families in Pennsylvania.
PAIRWN was founded in May 2001 when ten women from diverse backgrounds got together to assist one another in taking leadership roles within their communities. They saw a need for newly arriving women to gain the skills and self-confidence required for a successful transition to a new life.
In August 2001, six of these women attended a four-day conference hosted by the National Immigrant and Refugee Women's Network. Through skills gained at the conference and monthly meetings of its members, PAIRWN began responding to the needs of women and making a difference in our communities.
Current Work
Today, PAIRWN's members are women from all over the world who have made Pennsylvania their home. We are successfully organizing and networking in local immigrant and refugee communities, drawing new membership and forging a series of partnerships with individuals and communities, nonprofit organizations, legal services, government organizations, school and universities, businesses, and media outlets.
Our organization is led and managed by local immigrant and refugee women from diverse backgrounds. As such, PAIRWN is a collaborative project for self-empowerment between these women, their families and friends, and the broader immigrant and refugee communities of Pennsylvania.
As the first organization in Pennsylvania to focus directly on immigrant and refugee women's issues, PAIRWN has a crucial and ground-breaking mission. Our members' diverse experiences and cultures form a rich resource from which we draw to reach our goals. Our current projects, including initiatives for women, youth, seniors, and the broader community, reflect this wealth in many ways. PAIRWN's work has been featured in numerous local publications, including Harrisburg Magazine, WE Magazine, and BusinessWoman. PAIRWN Board Members have been invited to speak at numerous local colleges and universities and at regular meetings and special events of many nonprofit and government-related organizations.
From 2001 to 2006, our board focused on identifying and serving the needs of immigrant and refugee women through resource referrals and face-to-face support, creating bonds of trust and mutual communication between our board, our members, and the broader community. For the first four years, we had no official budget or grants to support us, but relied on the generosity of volunteers who gave their time as well as small financial donations. We earned our first official grant in 2005, which came in from the Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Our work is crucial to supplement the notable achievements in housing, employment, and health screenings completed in those first few years after arrival, as a successful placement often leaves many aspects of a healthy, stable, and fulfilling life unaddressed.
Access to continued translation and interpretation services, healthcare resources, ESL classes, transportation, and job training; continued work on immigration paperwork; opportunities to retain cultural heritage and share traditions with young children; resources for remedying experiences with discrimination, domestic violence, and sexual assault; and developing leadership skills in a new country - all these needs, among many others, go beyond the definition of an initial successful placement. Immigrant and refugee women can continue to struggle, to remain isolated by cultural, linguistic, and financial barriers for years after their arrival in the United States. Without our work, many of these women would struggle alone.
People We Serve
PAIRWN seeks to meet the needs of a large and under-served population. Our work centers on immigrant and refugee women. We seek to provide these women with support and voice. In helping women, we often work with families as a whole and with people of all ages, genders, nationalities, races, and religions.
Our organization is contacted for help and support from men in immigrant and refugee communities, and we certainly do not turn away such requests, but aid those people in finding the help they need through referrals to other organizations and networks.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Pennsylvania is currently home to a foreign-born population of over 565,000 people. PAIRWN currently serves the immigrant and refugee communities of Central Pennsylvania in the six counties of Dauphin, Cumberland, Lancaster, York, Lebanon, and Perry surrounding the state capital of Harrisburg. Many people within this population have limited English language skills; many live at or below poverty level. Women from the regions of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Erie have great need for our help, and we hope to extend soon our reach outward to those populations, bringing our total audience to over half a million people.
After our first year, our membership was 10 people. By 2006, after five years of organizing, our membership reached 100 people and continues to grow. Our members hail from North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Our membership includes both women and men, native-born and immigrants and refugees to the United States.
All leadership and decision-making responsibilities have been and always will be reserved for immigrant and refugee women. However, all people interested in our mission and projects are welcome to become members and/or partner with our organization.
For all events, we advertise to the greatest extent appropriate and possible in the major languages of local immigrant and refugee communities. These include English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Turkish, Russian, and Bosnian. In addition, our newsletter, Our Voice, is distributed to over 700 people, focused in Pennsylvania but reaching across the country.
PAIRWN is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the well-being of immigrant and refugee communities in Pennsylvania. As the first organization in Pennsylvania to focus directly on immigrant and refugee women's issues, PAIRWN has a crucial and ground-breaking mission.
© 2010 PAIRWN.