Empowering Women of Color Around the World
For the last 20 years, The John and Susan Dewan Foundation, has been dedicated to helping people in poverty improve their state in life by providing opportunities for education and productive work.
We do this in conjunction with more than 40 grant partners operating here in our home City of Chicago and around the world.
Much of this work focuses on assisting women of color to improve their lives.
Here are some examples of what we have accomplished with our trusted and effective grant partners.
Caravan to Class
Caravan To Class is bringing literacy to villages around the fabled City of Timbuktu at the edge of the Sahara in the African nation of Mali. They are passionate about educating children, especially girls.
To-date, Caravan has constructed 15 schools and instituted a college scholarship program for talented young women.
Their cost per student year for educating a child, including school construction is $143.
Clink on the Caravan video to meet some recent college scholarship award winners.
Gracia, Inc.
Gracia, Inc. operates in the City of Jalapa, Guatemala. The Gracia Entrepreneur Training Program empowers young women who are survivors of trauma to become economically independent. A high-end jewelry making company headquartered in the Milagros Workshop teaches not only the essentials of business practice, but also the skills to make their own strategic life choices.
The young women combine grace and miracles with dedication and hard work to launch their business careers.
Click on the Gracia video to hear from the young women themselves.
New Moms
New Moms is located on Chicago’s west side. They “light the way” toward living wage jobs for young single-parent, female-headed families through paid job training. Bright Endeavors is their candle-making manufacturing business.
Click on the New Moms video to learn about the young women and their business.
Our Lady of Tepeyac High School
Our Lady of Tepeyac High School is a Roman Catholic all-girls secondary school deeply rooted in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago, one of the largest Mexican-American communities in the United States. For the twelfth year in a row, every Tepeyac senior was accepted into college. Seventy-seven percent of them were the first in their family to go on to college.
View some of the students and alums in this Tepeyac slideshow.
Thank you for your interest in our work and in helping to empower women of color.