Fatima Women’s Association
Fatima Women’s Association (FWA) was established in 1999 and provides a wide range of services from pre-employability skills, literacy, communication, IT, numeracy, health and wellbeing programmes and activities for children and young people. In essence the charity empowers women and young people to improve their lives and to encourage community cohesion.
FWA has seen an increase in demand over the past few years and especially for its integrated English language and IT sessions, exercise programme and its sewing skills training which enables women to be self-sufficient.
The Garfield Weston Foundation have bridged the gap in funding which has enabled the association to increase and enhance our provision in consultation with the service users. We are the busiest we have ever been, with over 200 children, young people and adults accessing the centre each week
FWA’s programmes are culturally sensitive and co-designed with the women the charity supports. FWA submitted a strong proposal that clearly demonstrated the need it is meeting, the impact its work has, strong referral routes, a clear fundraising plan, and a passionate commitment to serving the local community. Since the Foundation was established over 60 years ago, we have supported community-based organisations that aim to improve the lives of their local people and we were happy to make a core cost grant to support the ongoing work of FWA to empower global majority women across Oldham.