Diaspora Women Arise

09/02/2025

Timing can save or sink your case. Don't delay, act wisely.



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03/02/2025

As we embark on this journey of honoring the incredible women who shape our world, I want to start with a reminder that YOU matter. 💫

Every woman is unique, strong, and full of purpose. Your story is significant, your voice is powerful, and you are making a difference. No matter where you come from, what challenges you've faced, or the path you’re walking, YOU are special. 🌸

Let’s stand together, celebrate our strength, and remind each other that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. 🌍💖

12/31/2024

"Last Chance to Make an Impact Before Year Ends!"

As 2024 draws to a close, we invite you to take a step of faith and extend your generosity to support our mission of establishing a safe home for African immigrant women and children in crisis in Albany, NY.

In Hebrews 13:2, we are reminded, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” This verse calls us to welcome and care for those who need it most—and right now, your support can make a life-changing difference for these women and children.

As a 501(c)(3) organization, your donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Make your year-end gift today and show the love of Christ through your kindness. Let’s come together to make a lasting impact in the lives of newcomers in our community.

Donations can be sent via Zelle: [email protected]

12/17/2024

Shalom!! As the holidays approach, please consider making a year-end gift to support Diaspora Women Arise in opening a safe haven for African immigrant women and children in crisis. These women and children often face abuse, trafficking, or uncertainty while navigating the immigration process and other systems. Your generosity will provide the essential furnishings needed to create a nurturing, safe space where they can heal, rebuild, and thrive.

Sadly, without proper support, many are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. With your help, we can offer refugees and asylum seekers a place they can truly call home.

Here’s how you can help:

Monetary donations via Zelle: [email protected]
Donate essential items via our Walmart Registry: https://bit.ly/3VJ3REo

Thank you for helping us make a lasting impact in the lives of our new neighbors. Together, we can offer comfort, hope, and a brighter future. 🙏💖👏🏾

12/14/2024

Shalom Immigrant Community! Please be informed about what is going on in your State regarding mass deportation and make a plan...ignorance is no defense. Help is available to get your documents in order.

12/07/2024

Did you know it takes, on average, 7 attempts for a woman to leave an abusive relationship? This statistic highlights just how complex and painful the journey to safety can be.

For those of us who haven’t experienced abuse, or who have been given the grace to get away before the roots of abuse set in, it’s easy to be judgmental or question why someone doesn’t leave sooner. But the reality is, emotional, psychological, and physical trauma often leaves survivors feeling broken, confused, and trapped. Stockholm syndrome can develop, making it even harder to break free from their abuser’s control.

Our response should be one of compassion, patience, and prayer. Healing doesn’t happen overnight, but with unwavering support, survivors can find the strength to walk away for good. Let’s commit to being a listening ear, a source of understanding, and a beacon of hope for those who need it the most.

Join the conversation on Voice of America Women's Roundtable where I was interviewed on the work we are doing to help women get out of abusive relationships, https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1MuJXSbWFQ/

12/02/2024

Where do you go when you are in distress? Where do you run to when your spouse abuses you? Where do you go when you are being abused by someone who promised to love and care for you? What about when that person is a relative?

Most of us can count a few friends and family and even resources within our community where we can definitely go and find safety and help. But for a significant number of immigrant women and children they don't have that many options. Their immigration status may determine whether or not they can get government assistance, most of the time they don't (contrary to what most Americans are made to think by politicians).

While we cannot save every immigrant woman, we are willing to at least try. African immigrant women are often left out of the equation of access to services. I should know, I have been in the US almost 3 decades and I have seen many of my fellow African women being abused, trafficked and sometimes murdered while they are forced to live with the very person serving the abuse because the abuser is often the only person they know in these foreign lands.

This Giving Tuesday, please consider supporting Diaspora Women Arise's efforts to establish a safe haven for African immigrant women and children in distress. You can choose to donate thru our campaign on this link or through Zelle at [email protected].

We are a 501c3 so your donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Thank you.

11/26/2024

Giving Tuesday is around the corner. As we plan to spend Thanksgiving with our families, I trust that we are doing so with hearts filled with gratitude for the blessing of safe spaces to gather. I am asking that you also take some time to think of women and children who are forced to leave their homes and countries to escape different aspects of abuse. I am appealing to you to help me establish a sanctuary for African immigrant women. Thank you in advance for your donations. God bless you.

From Crisis to Hope: Support a Safe Home for Immigrant Women and Children

11/23/2024

Shalom! Shalom! Excitement Alert!!

This has been a long desire and prayer of mine...to offer services I wished I had when I first landed in the United States of America.

Women often face many barriers in stabilizing their immigration:
☆ Exhorbitant attorney and USCIS fees
☆ Domestic abuse
☆ Human trafficking
☆ Economic hardship
☆ Cultural insensitivity
☆ And more

I'm excited to announce that Diaspora Women Arise is here to help break down those barriers.

While our target population is African women, we are happy to extend our services to others as well.

Our goal is to get you stabilized within 3 years of arriving in the US. So, please don't delay...reach out let's help you integrated effectively.

This can only be God!!!

09/13/2024

Reflection Day 2: September 12, 1997 I landed at Baltimore Washington International (BWI). Going thru immigration and customs was smooth. I was only asked one question, "US anyone picking you up?" I said yes and I gave them the name of my boss. I was directed to where to go and sure enough Mr T was there with his assistant/driver. I recognized him straight away.

"How was your flight? Let me have your passport." In the same breadth and as I informed him of the flight I simultaneously pulled out my passport and handed it to him 🚩flag numero uno! He made some excuse about him needing to send it to Immigration office to have my work permit stamped in it. What I know now and didn't know then:
1. Noone has the right to keep your passport
2. Immigration officials never ask you to send your original passport to their offices. If they need it, they will ask for copies
3. Immigration officials always discourage mailing any originals of your important documents to them (passport,ID, birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate, etc). If they need to see originals, you take them in person, they review them in front of you and they give them back to you.

About a week later, my boss has not discussed pay, duties, forms, contracts - you know all the things one expects HR to address on 1st day. 🚩flag #2!

When I asked about it over time, the excuses would be either "we can't pay you because you don't have a social security number," or we are still waiting for your passport from Immigration. This became a song and dance for almost 2.5 years. 🚩flag #3 excuses, excuses.

Now, when you are in a new country, new system, you dint question much because you blindly trust the people around you. I mean these guys had hired me in Zimbabwe, they were high-ranking political figures who marched with Martin Luther King, were connected to the Clintons at the White House, they were revered in the African American community and to top it all up, they looked like me, a little lighter-skinned than me but Black nevertheless. How could I not trust people who seemingly fight for human rights? Well, I learnt very fast that the civil rights they fought for were not for Africans like me or the Africans from the Caribbean because it was only us they brought to the US for labor with no intention of paying us. I learnt later on that they'd been doing this with Caribbean natives and I became their one and only African to do that to because that's who I was suing on that fateful day of September 11, 200I.

Yes, I had my day in court and they tried to tell the judge that they couldn't pay me because I didn't have work permit. The nerve! I didn't have work permit because they lied that they had sent my passport ti Immigration when in reality, they has hidden my passport under lock and key until I stole it and ran away. Unfortunately for them, they were informed labor law is straight forward, you work you get paid PERIOD! Needless to say, I won, they lost!!

Noone is allowed to take your passport, particularly when you are in a foreign country. Your passport is your property. Most "undocumented" immigrants are tricked or bullied by abusers into giving up their passports. That is illegal.

If this is happening to you or to someone you know, please let them reach out to us Diaspora Women Arise. Much grace.