Dining for Women Supports SMF

Dining for Women, a dinner giving circle with 5,000 members across 167 chapters, has chosen to support The Somaly Mam Foundation throughout September.  Their generous support will provide funds for SMF’s Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships to survivors of sex trafficking.

As a giving circle, which brings the individual donations of many people together to create a large, targeted donation, Dining for Women embraces the power of collective giving to create major impact, while maintaining the intimacy of small groups.  Dining for Women members in each chapter “dine in” together once a month, each bringing a dish to share, and send their “dining out” dollars to international programs that empower women.

By focusing on a single organization per month, Dining for Women is able to educate its members about the various causes that their donations support – from micro-loans in Ghana, to sex trafficking in Southeast Asia – more deeply than many other groups that are less targeted in their funding.  Through their involvement in the giving circle, members are empowered as agents of change as they collectively take action and become better informed on matters of poverty, oppression, and exploitation that women around the world face.  In addition, members know that their funds are directly benefiting  women’s lives, as the donations raised by Dining for Women support on-the-ground programs. On average, these dinners raise more than $20,000 each month.

Donations from September’s Dining for Women dinners will directly fund SMF’s Scholarship Fund to help provide survivors of sex trafficking with primary, secondary, and higher education opportunities, as well as technical and vocational education, and short-course study.  Education is one of the most important components of survivor reintegration, as it translates into long-term, sustainable employment.

SMF’s focus on survivor empowerment through education and leadership programs like Voices for Change is  a perfect match for Dining for Women’s mission –  to help women around the world achieve self-sufficiency and independence.