Mem­bers of the Syr­i­an Lebanese Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion (SLWA) in T&T re­cent­ly came to­geth­er to ac­com­plish one of their most im­pact­ing ini­tia­tives–the much-an­tic­i­pat­ed an­nu­al Christ­mas Food Ham­pers project.

This heart­felt ini­tia­tive, now in its 70th year, fo­cus­es on dis­trib­ut­ing food ham­pers through­out the na­tion to fam­i­lies in need, em­body­ing the spir­it of giv­ing dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son.

What be­gan over 70 years ago as sim­ple parcels of ap­ples has evolved in­to a com­pre­hen­sive food ham­per pro­gramme, where ham­pers have enough prod­uct to sus­tain a fam­i­ly of up to six for an en­tire month. The ham­pers, now num­ber­ing 1,800 for the year 2023, are metic­u­lous­ly built, packed, and dis­trib­uted by over 100 ded­i­cat­ed vol­un­teers from the as­so­ci­a­tion, along with friends and fam­i­ly.

The heart of the op­er­a­tion lies in St An­tho­ny’s Hall, which has gra­cious­ly served as the project’s home for many years. This cen­tral lo­ca­tion al­lows for ef­fi­cient co­or­di­na­tion and has be­come a sym­bol of the com­mu­ni­ty’s col­lec­tive com­mit­ment to spread­ing joy dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son.

Ex­ten­sive col­lab­o­ra­tions and part­ner­ships

The SLWA Ham­per Project has be­come a bea­con of hope and uni­ty, bring­ing to­geth­er di­verse com­mu­ni­ties and or­gan­i­sa­tions. Over the two days, vol­un­teers col­lab­o­rate to as­sem­ble ham­pers that con­tain es­sen­tial food items to make the hol­i­day sea­son brighter for fam­i­lies across the na­tion.

The char­i­ta­ble ef­fort is made pos­si­ble through a com­bi­na­tion of fi­nan­cial and prod­uct do­na­tions from both cor­po­rate en­ti­ties and in­di­vid­u­als. These con­tri­bu­tions are cru­cial for procur­ing every­thing from food goods, to box­es, straight down to tape and pa­per for as­sem­bly, show­cas­ing the col­lab­o­ra­tive spir­it that de­fines the SLWA. The to­tal val­ue of this char­i­ta­ble en­deav­our is over $400,000.

The im­pact is far-reach­ing, with a wide va­ri­ety of or­gan­i­sa­tions, in­clud­ing re­li­gious groups and shel­ters, join­ing forces to col­lect and dis­trib­ute ham­pers to even the most re­mote lo­ca­tions.

Ex­pan­sion of the Christ­mas ham­per ini­tia­tive

In re­flect­ing on the project’s growth, SLWA pres­i­dent Jo-marie Za­k­our shared, “We are in­cred­i­bly proud to wit­ness the evo­lu­tion of the Christ­mas Ham­per Project over the years. It stands as one of our longest-stand­ing an­nu­al ini­tia­tives, and we ea­ger­ly an­tic­i­pate it every year. We look for­ward to its con­tin­ued growth and hope­ful­ly dou­bling its reach to bring joy and sus­te­nance to even more fam­i­lies in need.”

A spe­cial thank you to all com­pa­nies, in­di­vid­u­als and mem­bers who have con­tributed to mak­ing this project a con­tin­ued suc­cess.

Syr­i­an Lebanese Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion

Found­ed in 1950, the Syr­i­an Lebanese Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion is an NGO whose main mis­sion is to bring women to­geth­er to help our fel­low cit­i­zens in need. Our mem­ber­ship of 350 and count­ing is com­mit­ted to as­sist­ing the poor, sick, and needy through ef­forts that con­tribute more than half a mil­lion dol­lars an­nu­al­ly. The Syr­i­an Lebanese Women’s As­so­ci­a­tion has helped those in need in var­i­ous ways over the last 72 years.

Email: slwas­soc@ya­hoo.com

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