The Syr­i­an Lebanese Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion (SLWA) do­nat­ed over $600,000 to cas­es this past year to as­sist those most in need in our com­mu­ni­ties in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Even though the last two years had been dif­fi­cult for all, these do­na­tions were on­ly pos­si­ble with the con­tin­ued fundrais­ing ac­tiv­i­ties of the SLWA, do­na­tions and new part­ner­ships for which they are grate­ful.

The lo­cal NGO was able to dis­trib­ute over 2,800 food ham­pers to those most in need us­ing both the as­so­ci­a­tion’s longest stand­ing ini­tia­tives as well as new ini­tia­tives. These pro­grams in­clude their ‘Month­ly Ham­per Project’ and their ‘Christ­mas Ham­per Project’. A need for di­ver­si­fy fundrais­ing has led to the newest ini­tia­tives in­clud­ing a part­ner­ship with lo­cal food de­liv­ery app, food­DROP and the ‘East­er Ham­per Project’ with Re­pub­lic Bank – Pow­er to Make a Dif­fer­ence Pro­gram. The in­te­gra­tion of these new part­ner­ships led to an in­crease in out­put of close to 20%. The SLWA al­so con­tin­ued to aid those in need of med­ical, hous­ing and ed­u­ca­tion as­sis­tance.

“As an or­gan­i­sa­tion, the peo­ple that we help are at the heart of the work that we do. We are al­ways think­ing of new ways to am­pli­fy our im­pact to as­sist as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble across T&T. We are in­cred­i­bly grate­ful with the growth over the last year and hope to con­tin­ue on this path,” states Jo-Marie Za­k­our, Pres­i­dent of the Syr­i­an Lebanese Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion.

The SLWA was al­so able to ex­pand on their an­nu­al back­pack project in 2022. This ini­tia­tive start­ed in 2016 with 50 back­packs dis­trib­uted to stu­dents in need - every­thing from sta­tion­ary and books to lunch kits and wa­ter cool­ers. It grew to 150 back­packs per year, and in 2022 due to an ex­cit­ing part­ner­ship with the Re­bec­ca Ann Foun­da­tion, they were able to ex­pand to 300 back­packs. The dis­tri­b­u­tion served the Rain­bow Heart Foun­da­tion, Women’s In­sti­tute for Al­ter­na­tive De­vel­op­ment – WINAD, St. Matin Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion, Mt Dor Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry, Ma­yaro Past Pupils As­so­ci­a­tion, Caribbean Women Sup­port Group and St. David’s Ro­man Catholic School.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the SLWA held their an­nu­al elec­tions on the 1st Feb­ru­ary 2023, where Jo-Marie Za­k­our was cho­sen to serve a fourth term as pres­i­dent of the or­ga­ni­za­tion. A team of 14 women was elect­ed to make up this year’s com­mit­tee in­clud­ing some re­turn­ing as well as some new mem­bers.

The Pres­i­dent and com­mit­tee look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing the work of the As­so­ci­a­tion for 2023. They look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing work­ing and serv­ing this na­tion for the com­ing year.

About Us:

Syr­i­an Lebanese Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion:

Found­ed in 1950, the Syr­i­an Lebanese Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion is an NGO whose main mis­sion is to bring women to­geth­er to help our fel­low cit­i­zens in need. Our mem­ber­ship of 350 and count­ing, is com­mit­ted to as­sist­ing the poor, sick, and needy through ef­forts that con­tribute more than half a mil­lion dol­lars an­nu­al­ly.

The Syr­i­an Lebanese Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion has helped those in need in var­i­ous ways over the last 72 years.