From our founding in 2010, we have selected beneficiaries for each Mainstage production who work towards gender equity at home and abroad. As we celebrate our 10th Anniversary Season WAM’s PR & Marketing Associate, Gail Burns, got in touch with some of those organizations to hear how they are doing now and what impact our donations had.
Below you will find their heartwarming and inspirational responses.
[button link=”https://www.wamtheatre.com/our-beneficiaries/” newwindow=”yes”] Learn About ALL our WAM Beneficiaries[/button]
Lady Randy 2019
“The $1,200 WAM donation bought materials for our sewing cooperatives in Africa, primarily in Malawi and Kenya, our newest cooperatives in that region. On August 17, 2019, we held our first MoonBee in the Berkshires and over 20 volunteers showed up to construct MoonCatcher Kits at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Lenox. We are so grateful for the donation and are in awe of the work WAM does.”
– Roe Vickery
Here is what we have been doing lately (numbers are approximate):
In Tanzania – 100 kits were distributed with The Outer Loop Experience
In Zimbabwe – 350 were distributed to AIDS orphans.
In Uganda – 400 kits were distributed in August, and 700 in July. Another 800 are in production now.
In Malawi – Over 700 kits have been produced and delivered since January.
In Kenya – nearly 1,500 kits have been produced and delivered since January.
In India – 2,000 kits have been given out to girls in the New Delhi area since our center opened in Oct. 2019. We have another 16,000 ready to go out in Sept/October of this year.
ANN 2018
Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, LIPPI Scholarships
The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts is thrilled to have been the very first recipient of a WAM production donation in 2010, and also one of its most recent with $7,500 from the run of ANN, which empowered two women from the Berkshires, including Erika Allison, to attend our leadership program, LIPPI. Erika just helped recruit a few more women to join this year’s cohort. So, like any great gift, the WAM donation has created a chain of generosity.
– Donna Haghighat,
“Being a WAM beneficiary has been wonderful for us in measurable and immeasurable ways. The spotlight your generosity shone on us definitely increased our visibility in the community. As predicted, we were also able to give both more and occasionally larger grants. Now having a bit more financial freedom, we are in conversation with our partners at the Cancer Center at Berkshire Medical Center about ways that we can further expand the fund’s impact. We are grateful daily for WAM’s role in the life of this wonderful fund!”
– Barbara Bonner, Fund Advisor and Co-Founder
The Last Wife 2017
“Thanks to the generosity of WAM, Soldier On Women’s Program was able to offer two sessions of Seeking Safety (totaling 11 participants in each session), offer a “continuum-of-care” group in the community for those residents who successfully transitioned into independent living, and engaged Soldier On women socially by inviting them to two additional theatre performances, and providing them with an opportunity to partake with BerkChique! The women found motivation and inspiration through these performances, volunteer opportunities, and group offerings. The women have communicated such positive feedback about how WAM has aided in their personal recovery and helped build their confidence levels as they find their own voices. The WAMily has truly empowered the women at Soldier On to further develop into the amazing individuals they are!”
– Stephanie Ovitt, Women’s Program Supervisor
The Bakelite Masterpiece 2016
New Illuminations Women’s Art Project in Armenia
“The WAM donation helped me do my first New Illuminations Project in Gyumri, Armenia It meant so much to me that WAM took me and my project seriously – it really gave me the courage to move forward, and it helped me understand the need for an active community around a project for it to succeed.
Right now I’m starting a six-week fundraiser for my fourth Armenian residency, and each time the project has been growing a little bit more. We’ve reached close to 60 women in the workshops, and they really open new vistas for them, helping them see new alternatives to marriage and childbearing. This project gives them the confidence to stay true to their art. They are expanding on the skills and some are starting to teach. We’ve also made a difference in the lives of hundreds of people who have seen the work, who know the women who make that work, and who have bought the books the women have created.”
– Suzi Banks Baum
Holy Laughter 2015
“The gift from WAM that we shared with Sisters for Peace several years back made a tremendous, practical impact on a number of our HIO families in the Balkhu slum where we fund a preschool. The slum is one of the poorest areas in Kathmandu bordering the fetid Bagmati River. The donation was used for a food relief distribution for 60 families. $25 worth of rice, lentils, cooking oil and spices allowed a family of four, basic nutrition for a month. Hard to imagine!
From that gift, the impact was so meaningful, we’ve since secured a family foundation to make regular yearly donations and we’re up to helping to feed 197 families in four different locations around the city, twice a year at six month internals. Not wanting to cause an inadvertent dependency, but rather allowing poor single mothers a bit of food security for a month here and there. This gives them a small respite from their daily grind working on construction sites or as domestics struggling to feed their families.”
– Ricky Bernstein, Executive Director
In Darfur 2014
The Housemothers of the Mother of Peace Orphanage in Illovo, South Africa
(Now Indwe Africa)
“The gift from WAM to the mothers at the Mother of Peace – Illovo was immediately welcomed, distributed, appreciated, and celebrated beyond belief. For these women to have money to spend on their “foster children” and some to bring home to their families who they had to leave in order to have housing and food and safety via Mother of Peace was a first.
I remember visiting there shortly after the distribution. The mothers, normally worn down by the drudgery of managing two families without the power of having any spending money at all, were walking faster, more engaged with the children, and happy to welcome us into their homes. One mother, who is older and understandably a bit worn out raising two families at once, took her small share and bought beads and built a small business for herself with all the proceeds going to the possibility of living out her life with her some sense of security. Others indulged themselves in small personal care items for the first time in their lives, and all invested a bit in treats for the kids.
These were the immediate and tangible results of the WAM gift. it was the long lasting, farther reaching gift, however, that was more powerful. The WAM gift filled the entire MOP campus with hope and dreams. For a brief moment everyone felt connected to the world and valued
The WAM gift along with many others from the states inspired all of us to create a Montessori school on the campus. A new joy for life was felt among us all and we believed we could take the children to new heights. In other words, the WAM gift and others sent us soaring. It led us to a big plan that we all engaged in and worked hard on for the following years. Like many great ideas as things changed and the people on the ground became more involved the direction changed.
The management of Mother of Peace went through some dramatic changes as did the population. The school moved off campus and into the community where they are impacting many more children and families. Now called The Indwe Learning Centers, they went from an American directed program to an African one. Today, I am no longer involved but as I understand it Indwe Africa is going strong and children are getting the educational foundation all deserve.
So what impact did the WAM gift have? It gave the mothers some of the just and immediate rewards they deserve; It filled a small community with belief in possibilities; It gave a group of determined South Africans the confidence to create and manage a program of their own; It gave who knows how many children a powerful launch pad for the rest of their lives. The impact of WAM lives on.Thank you WAM. Thank you!”
– Susie Weekes Roeder
O Solo A Mama Mia Festival 2011
“Thank you for the donation in 2011, which was the year we opened our Surgical Theatres as well as the EdnaAdan University.
Your donation of $650 covered two C. Sections for two emergency mothers. We also do free surgery on children with Hydrocephalus. A picture of a child with a shunt insertion and a picture of our new theatre are attached.”
– Edna Adan Ismail, Founder & Director, Edna’s Hospital
The Attic, The Pearls, and Three Fine Girls 2011
The Berkshire United Way Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative
Since then, that project has grown to become The Face the Facts Coalition.
“We are happy to report that due to your contribution, along with other resources, we were able to reduce the Berkshire County teen pregnancy rate sooner than expected! (see below)
In 2011, we were working heavily in the area of our first strategy – providing access to sexual health information to students, teachers and parents.
Face the Facts: Reduce Teen Pregnancy was an initiative launched by Berkshire United Way in 2010 to reduce the number of teen births in Berkshire County. The initial goal of the coalition was to increase the knowledge of human sexuality and reproductive health and strengthen responsible decision-making skills of youth in order to reduce the number of teen births in Berkshire County by 50% by 2020.
Strategies use to support the initiative:
- Access to sexual health information (the knowledge needed to prevent pregnancy)
- Adolescent Sexual Health curriculum delivery in school districts (for students)
- Professional Development for teachers
- Let’s Be Honest (parent education curriculum)
- Access to healthcare including condoms and other contraceptives for sexually active youth (the means to prevent pregnancy)
- Tapestry Health – increased tabling opportunities at Berkshire County school districts
- Perception of hope and opportunity for a bright future (the motivation to prevent pregnancy)
- Marketing campaigns
When the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released the most recent data on teen births it reported between 2010 and 2016, Berkshire County’s teen birth rate had decreased by 51%, exceeding the coalition’s goal four years ahead of schedule. Our#Driving Our Community Forward event in May 2018 brought together partners involved with the initiative in honor this success..
– Karen Vogel, Director of Community Impact
Melancholy Play 2010
Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts
(See 2018)
