Utulivu Women’s Group is a specialist frontline women’s organisation that supports Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugees women, girls, and their families in Reading and surrounding areas to ensure they are safe, healthy, and have equal access to opportunities and resources.
We spoke to Cecily Mwaniki, Founder and CEO, about what the support from Rosa means to her organisation:
There is a great need for the work that Utulivu does. We have been going for 20 years and we are a lifeline for many vulnerable women. We provide 1-to-1 and community focussed support and activities that improve mental health and wellbeing, particularly for Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee women and girls. We’re really proud that over the years we’ve supported nearly 2,000 women, girls, and families. Rosa has funded Utulivu five times over the years – the most recent was a grant from the Rise Fund.
Space to build and strengthen
We knew there were things we needed to do for our organisation but we couldn’t invest in Utulivu, as we were investing in the women we support. We were too busy providing practical support to stop and think about the bigger picture. Rosa’s funding gave us the space to build and strengthen our infrastructure so that we could grow and support more vulnerable women and girls. The Rise funding was incredibly valuable to us at a hugely difficult time – we were in a bad space because of the pandemic. We used some of our grant to put together a business plan, to fund a part-time business development manager and to employ an office manager. Having these roles has meant Utulivu has been able to access more funding. Before the Rise funding we were typically accessing small pockets of money, which were time consuming to apply for and didn’t stretch very far. These small grants helped us to survive but since we received funding from Rosa we have been able to thrive and we’ve gone on to successfully secure grants from organisations like the National Lottery. We’re very thankful that Rosa trusted us to invest the money in the ways we knew it would have the biggest impact.
Increasing visibility
The funding meant we could build a proper website so not only could more women find us and get support but, crucially, we were more visible to other, smaller women’s organisations and we could support them, too. Our old website was very, very basic and run by volunteers – we were all learning but there were limits to what the website could do and what we could do with it. Our new site meant we were more visible and because of this we were noticed by other funders. Rosa’s funding also meant we could pay for Zoom. It cost us less than £200 but we couldn’t easily find this money before we got the Rise grant and it was incredible how much difference it made! There are other smaller women’s groups doing similar work to us and Zoom meant we could bring everyone together – this created a ripple effect and amplified all of our work. Being able to share the Utulivu team’s learnings meant we could all offer more support to the vulnerable women we work with. It has made a lasting difference as we now have very strong relationships with these organisations, and working together means we can all do more.
The importance of cultural knowledge
We’ve also been given funding by Rosa to help us to encourage vulnerable women to use foodbanks. The problem is that although foodbanks are available for women to use, many of the women we work with don’t have the confidence to go out and do so. This means they go without vital support, despite it being there for them. The women we support are very community-focussed and they draw energy and joy from giving. They are happy to be the ones giving and supporting but they do not feel comfortable needing and accepting the help on offer. This is clearly a problem, and so we used our shared cultural knowledge to run health and wellbeing conversations around the importance of foodbanks. We encouraged women to come online and to have these open conversations which tackled the shame and embarrassment they were feeling. Our ‘Let’s Talk’ sessions helped to de-stigmatise using foodbanks and we know many women went on to take up the support offered by these services. Without Utulivu this simply wouldn’t have happened – we understand the women who come to us in a way other, broader services don’t.
Long-term support and results
Utulivu was first funded by Rosa in 2014. This funding was purely for our work to tackle FGM and to raise awareness of the issue. We used the money to develop a training package which has been running ever since, of course it’s been updated but this funding from Rosa is still helping to protect and support vulnerable women ten years on. But it’s not all about funding – Utulivu has benefited from both the networking opportunities and the more formal training sessions we’ve been able to access because of Rosa. We’ve particularly valued the sessions on safeguarding and governance. These are key skills for any organisation and we’ve been able to share our learning with our network and the women we support. We are all about inspiration and empowerment – we enable women to act as role models and to share their lived experiences with vulnerable women who can learn and be inspired. This helps with recovery from trauma and means women can move on with their lives. We also work with girls and inspire them to concentrate on their education with our role-modelling work. We know a number of vulnerable women we’ve supported have started their own businesses or studied to get doctorates and we’re proud to have helped them to heal from the terrible experiences they have been through. Utulivu has helped so many women to see beyond their current circumstances and inspired them to believe ‘I can improve my situation – I can be better than I am now’.
Most recently I spoke at Rosa’s annual conference. It was brilliant to be able to share our experiences and to give back to our sector. I am incredibly proud of the work we do and the support we have had from Rosa has been invaluable. I hope we can all work together for many years to come!