YWCA seeking Māori women’s groups to fund

Media Release

YWCA of Greater Wellington
 

Tuesday 27 July 2010

YWCA Greater Wellington seeking Māori women’s groups to fund

This year, the YWCA of Greater Wellington celebrates 20 years of supporting local Māori women’s projects and programmes through their grant programme, the Māori Women’s Transfer Fund.  For Māori Language Week, they are calling for early applications for Māori women’s projects in the region.

YWCA of Greater Wellington’s Executive Director Makere Derbyshire says, “The YWCA’s Fund, available only to Mā ori wahine in Te Whanganui-ā -Tara (Wellington), was established 20 years ago with donations from individuals and organisations and is kept solely to assist M āori women’s projects.”

‘Whare Tukutuku’ a group of Māori tukutuku weavers received funding from the May 2010 round, towards art work framing for an exhibition which will be held at the Iwi Art Gallery on Tory Street, Wellington during the month of August.

Previously the Fund has supported recording waiata (songs) in English and Māori for Ngati Kahungunu women and their whanau. The waiata have been recorded onto mp3 files and can be played when practicing on iPods. 

Derbyshire wants to see more applications for the Fund. “We want to encourage more wahine to apply for the Fund, especially for projects that could involve promoting or protecting the Māori language.” says Derbyshire.

“We have a small team of Māori volunteers who make the funding decisions, and the YWCA has, for 20 years, provided the resource to administer the fund at no cost.  That means every cent donated to the Fund is given back to local wahine (Māori women).”

YWCA of Greater Wellington President, Vanisa Dhiru says, “The YWCA has administered 85 grants totalling over $50,000 over 20 years. That’s many gifts from Wellington women who have contributed to the Fund over 20 years. It’s important that the YWCA ensures more grants are given to Māori women projects in Wellington.”

“We want more Māori women to apply to the Fund, which has two rounds per year in May and October. The YWCA wants to help more Māori women’s projects, including anything that educates or protects the Māori language.”

Applications to the YWCA’s Māori Women’s Transfer Fund should be for amounts between $200 and $500.  The total funding pool allocated across all applications is around $1,500 per year.  For more information, go to www.wgtnywca.org.nz
ends

© Scoop Media