December 3, 2013
THIS GIVING SEASON, HELP US BUILD THE VISION!
Dear friends, allies, and family,
We’re still here because of you.
On May 24, 2012, Women With A Vision suffered what could have been a debilitating blow. Our offices were ransacked and torched in an aggravated arson attack; we were left with nothing but the charred remains of twenty-two years of work.
Through the support and generosity of our local, national, and international community of allies, we were able to continue to be a lifeline for New Orleans’ most vulnerable women in this time of crisis. We ended 2012 having secured a new building, and have spent 2013 working to renovate it. The building is blighted, but we’ve been able to gut the interior of the house and hire an architectural firm to plan out our Vision House.
But we still have a lot of work ahead of us, including rebuilding the house from the inside out and securing the permits needed to ensure Vision House is up to code. Our dream for 2014 is to finally be able to move into our new location.
This has been an incredible year for us at WWAV as we have worked tirelessly, both locally and nationally, to amplify the voices of our communities, ones most often ignored and marginalized. When our Executive Director, Deon Haywood, appeared on the Melissa Harris-Perry show this fall, we received emails, tweets, messages, posts, and calls from you. We heard from you how Deon shined an important light on the role of race AND gender in determining who will be considered a victim in society’s eyes, and who will experience the criminal justice system as a site of violence and harm. You echoed our outrage at how being a black woman made it impossible for Marissa Alexander to be seen as a victim of intimate partner violence. And you added your stories to those of the women that WWAV stands with, who are neither criminal prostitutes nor sex-trafficked victims, but rather people struggling to make ends meet.
We know you SEE the vision. Today, we are asking you to help SUSTAIN it, too!
Across the country people are using today as a day to give back. There’s a movement to make this day a national Giving Tuesday, a focused day of giving where charities, families, businesses, community centers, students, and others can come together to celebrate goodwill and generosity by giving something more. It’s a national reminder to be give back, to support causes that make a difference, and to think differently about where our dollars go.
We would love to have your support today as we work to open our new home. You can make a gift to WWAV by going to our website (http://wwav-no.org/donate). Your generosity has gotten us this far, and we ask that you continue to stand with us, to contribute what you are able, so that we might be able to provide our New Orleans community with the home they need to gather, educate, advocate, thrive, and realize justice in their lives.
Please forward this letter to your family and friends, and ask them to join you today in helping to build a world where human rights are a reality for everyone.
In love and struggle,
All of us at WWAV
