Sirleaf Market Women's Fund

Sirleaf Market Women's Fund

"The purpose of the Sirleaf Market Women's Fund (SMWF) is to provide financial and other support for the empowerment of women market traders...

"The Sirleaf Market Women's Fund is funded by grants through a fiscal sponsorship arrangement with the African Women's Development Fund - USA (AWDF - USA), an Africa-wide fundraising and grant-making organization created in the belief that African women's rights are inalienable, indivisible and an integral part of universal human rights. SMWF assists women who are strong, vibrant and have contributed greatly to Liberia's economy, and to its social, political, and cultural landscape. SMWF aims to contribute to their empowerment by providing them with tools to help them live self-sufficient, dignified lives, wherein their rights and their many contributions to Liberian society are respected and championed. To invest in Liberian market women is to invest in Liberia's future."

Directors
Accessed August 2008:


 * President - Thelma Awori - Former Assistant Secretary General, UNDP
 * Vice Presidents - Peg Snyder, Hilda Tadria
 * Treasurer - Florence Chenoweth - Executive Director, Human Rights Initiative, Division of International Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison
 * Secretary - Nancee Oku Bright - Chief, Advocacy & Public Information Section, UN-OCHA
 * Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi (Ex Officio) - Executive Director, African Women's Development Fund
 * Diane Bell-McKoy - President & CEO, Associated Black Charities
 * Susan M. Davis - President & CEO, BRAC USA
 * Dorothy Davis - President, The Diasporan Touch
 * Susie Johnson - Women's Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries
 * Angela King (posthumously)
 * Vivian Lowery Derryck - Senior Vice President and Director of Public-Private Partnerships, The Academy for Educational Development
 * Elizabeth Lwanga - Resident Representative for Kenya, UNDP
 * Jane Martin - Former Executive Director, US Educational and Cultural Foundation Liberia
 * Micheline Ravololonarisoa - Chief, Africa Section, UNIFEM

International Advisory Committee
Accessed August 2008:


 * Honorary Co-Chairs - Wangari Maathai, Mary Robinson
 * Calvin O. Butts III - Pastor, The Abyssinian Baptist Church
 * Howard Dodson - Chief, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
 * Ruth B. Love - President, RBL Enterprises
 * Barbara A. McKinzie - Centennial International President; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
 * Stephanie Vickers - President, Friends of Liberia
 * Cornel West

Contact

 * Web: http://smwf.org