Support and Action for Women’s Network (SAWN) is excited to announce that it has been nominated for the Community Group of the Year Award at Forever Manchester’s Birthday Party happening taking place on Friday 4 February 2022 at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in Manchester.
The Community Group of the Year Award recognises groups or projects that have made significant impacts whilst strengthening communities, making a difference, and putting a smile on people’s faces.
SAWN was established in 2007 to promote the welfare of Black/African women in Oldham and Greater Manchester and since then, it has ensured its actions support the overall vision which is to see ‘African women becoming independent, self-sustainable and key players in decision matters that concern them’.
SAWN has seen growth in its women empowering each other and impacting their communities. The SARATI (Stones and Roses Achievement Towards Independence) project gives women a platform to train, educate and raise awareness on issues that matters to them. It is a place where all women are free to be themselves as they share stories and develop solutions. With each session seeing an average of 30 women, the SARATI project has run over two years on a weekly basis providing over 80 sessions and inviting all Black/African women across Oldham and Manchester both in person and virtually.
In November 2021, the SAWN Climate project, in partnership with Women Environmental Network (WEN) participated in the COP26 Glasgow Climate conference addressing the impacts of bad climate policies and how their ineffectiveness affects Black African women across the globe. SAWN Sisters who participated were able to lead and take a stance as key players as they educated each other on the role of an African woman to improve climate change.
With the project funded by Lankelly Chase Foundation, SAWN Sisters spent three days as #SAWNettas in Glasgow meeting with other Climate Sisters, exhibiting at Pearce Institute, spending quality time at the green zone, and holding an inspiring performance at the Networking event on day three.
Chief Executive of SAWN, Rose Ssali said: “This is an exciting time for SAWN and we are truly thankful to all of our funders for making it possible to carry out all the beautiful work our women do at SAWN. We have seen our Climate Sisters grow to participate in this year’s COP26 and our Covid Champions are making a difference within our communities. We will continue to work to empower women in all we do and strengthen our communities through these women.”
Forever Manchester’s Birthday Party will bring SAWN together with partners and other community support organisations and institutions that do incredible work in our communities. The event will celebrate another year of helping local people do extraordinary things together. For more information about the Birthday party, please go to Forever Manchester Birthday 2021.