The Orchid Giving Circle ladies really know how to end the week on a high note. Minutes ago they virtually presented $202,000 in grants to the following 13 nonprofits:
- Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIA): Scholarships
- Chetna: Culturally specific services to South Asian victims of domestic violence including legal services, develop skills in the workforce, and remove transportation barriers they face
- Communities in Schools of North Texas: Chin Family Empowerment Program to support Chin students in Lewisville ISD schools
- Dallas Chinese Community Center: Life skills, workplace equality and youth leadership development
- Heart House: Holistic after school program utilizing trauma-informed care to help refugee children thrive in their new community
- IGNITE: Building Political Power in Asian American Young Women
- It’s a Sensory World! Inc.: Staff training for a program that serves children with special needs
- Literacy Achieves: Family Literacy Program for immigrant and refugee families, and All Have Value: Campaign addressing anti-Asian discrimination
- Methodist Richardson Medical Center Foundation: Breast health outreach, education and mammogram access for Asian American women in need
- Mosaic Family Services Inc.: Mosaic House, a multicultural house for women and children who are domestic violence survivors, and hotline interpretation costs
- The Senior Source: Foster Grandparent Program
- Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation Inc.: Peace in the Home – Culturally Specialized Family Violence Program (PIH-DV)
- Vickery Meadow Youth Development Foundation: Mental health support for Asian immigrant middle school through college students.
Since being established six years ago their leadership has been Chair Cynthia Yung, Secretary Caren Lock and Grants Committee Chair Sejal Desai. Because of these three women, numerous nonprofits — well-known and lesser-known — have benefited from their efforts for the past six years.
According to Cynthia, ““We are honored to serve the North Texas Asian community alongside other women’s giving circles who focus on communities of color that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Now more than ever, our collective efforts to provide grants that directly support our most vulnerable communities is crucial.”
Established at Texas Women’s Foundation, the organization “is a group of Asian women who collaborate, pool their resources and leverage their networks to generate community grants that support social change services benefitting the North Texas Asian community.”
Texas Women’s Foundation President Ros Dawson Thompson said, “Texas Women’s Foundation congratulates the Orchid Giving Circle on raising these funds during such a challenging year and for thoughtfully selecting so many amazing organizations to support. Orchid was our first Giving Circle, and they play such an important role serving the ever growing Asian community in North Texas. I also want to personally thank Cynthia, Caren and Sejal for their extraordinary leadership these past six years!”
But change is in the future with the new leadership being Chair-Elect Mylinh Luong, Secretary Radhika Zaveri, Grants Committee Chair Gowri Sharma, Treasurer Jean Chao and Membership Chair Arang Cistulli.
* Photo credit: Kris Ikejiri ** Graphic courtesy of The Orchid Giving Circle
Pam says
Thanks for focusing on this group… .I’ was not familiar with them !