Communications & Outreach

Ujima Friends Sewing for Africa

Written on: September 22, 2022

Since 2019, members of the Ujima Friends Peace Center have partnered with Sankofa Artisan Guild to make reusable, environmentally friendly menstrual pads, pouches, and under garments for African girls’ whose educations are compromised due to “period poverty.” The group, now known as the PanAfrican Sisterhood Health Initiative (PASHI), is led by a group of Black Women elders most of who are community workers, keepers of the culture, educators, activists, counselors and lovers of the arts. The Friends Foundation on Aging supports funding for the project.

The Ujima Friends Peace Center provides the space, sewing machines, and willing hearts and hands to this project. The project was renamed by Maulana Ron Karenga, the creator of Kwanzaa, who thought the project was fabulous and worthy of the name Pan African Sisterhood Health Initiative (PASHI).

A picture of some of the girls who have received the pads.

Each shipment has included 300 reusable kits with purses to carry them in and masks. The countries served so far: Cuba, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Southern Sudan, and Tanzania.

Dr. Ayesha Imani, Head of School/Founder of the Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School and member of Ujima Friends Meeting, shares about PASHI:

The fact that we get elders and young people together to sew, eat, and share stories while making menstrual pads for girls in Africa is really wonderful. We have also been making and sending masks. The latest addition to the project is the birthing pads and bags that we are sending to help fight against infant mortality and maternal morbidity, increasing sanitation in the birthing process.

Others are welcome to join in sewing together for Africa and the diaspora. The project is held at the Peace Center every Wednesday from 10am – 2pm. There is limited space, but if interested in visiting please contact Dr. Imani. If you have a sewing machine, you are welcome to bring it! There are plans to expand the project into Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School and Imhotep Institute Charter High School.

Friends can visit the Ujima Friends Peace Center website to learn more: www.ujimafriends.org

Donations can be sent to:Ujima Friends Peace Center,PO Box 50647,Philadelphia, PA

Photos courtesy of Dr. Ayesha Imani

Reflections and Updates: The African American Museum of Bucks County

Written on: September 8, 2022

Friends from Bucks Quarter met virtually once again on August 21, 2022. It was meant to be our first venture into hybrid meeting, and our host, Fallsington Meeting, was up to the challenge. The coronavirus, however, had other plans for us. Meeting in person was contingent upon low transmission levels of the virus; unfortunately, the transmission level was stubbornly stuck at moderate, and we made the disappointing decision to meet only on Zoom. [Read more…] about Reflections and Updates: The African American Museum of Bucks County

Summer of Freedom Camp visits Solebury Meeting

Written on: September 1, 2022

On a beautiful day in July, Solebury Friends Meeting hosted a group of kids from the Summer of Freedom camp, run by the Ujima Friends Peace Center, which is located in North Philly. Solebury Friend Amy Manoff started the day off right. She explained to the kids how she came to be a fruit farmer and, before taking the kids to pick blueberries, answered all their questions. Kraig McClendon brought the kids out to the country for the day. He’s a photographer and enjoyed capturing the day with his camera. [Read more…] about Summer of Freedom Camp visits Solebury Meeting

Giant Children’s Meeting: What’s Next?

Written on: August 30, 2022

In the Fall of 2020, as children returned to school online and many meetings settled into hosting worship on Zoom, the question of how to support religious education programs and community for children and families in meetings was on many minds. Local meetings did amazing things in the depth of the pandemic — care packages, calls and notes to young Friends and their families, outdoor programs when possible — even online Christmas pageants! The PYM Children & Families program was also experimenting, and Giant Children’s Meeting was born from both necessity and hope. Now we’re ready to discern what’s next for creating children and their families in our wider PYM community. [Read more…] about Giant Children’s Meeting: What’s Next?

Religious Education Resources & Events for Fall

Written on: August 25, 2022

When the afternoon sunshine softens and the crickets take over for the cicada chorus, I know it’s back to school time. The former classroom teacher in me feels the tug to get ready for the new year, and of course in meetings we may be getting ready to welcome children and youth back from summer adventures to school-year routines. One of the ideas I’m thinking about a lot is rethinking “First Day School” — both that language and the scholastic model. It’s not “the way we’ve always done things” as Friends, and the interruptions of the pandemic continue to create opportunities for new ways of exploring, listening, and being community in our meetings. Join me for a conversation on this! Below you’ll find resources for Fall and events for conversation, service, and fellowship.
[Read more…] about Religious Education Resources & Events for Fall

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Epistle for Annual Sessions 2022

Written on: August 9, 2022

Annual Sessions 2022 gathered Friends from across the PYM four-state region and beyond. Visitors from other yearly meetings and Quaker organizations were warmly welcomed. Following yearly meetings’ annual gatherings, outgoing epistles “to all Friends everywhere” are shared widely in our global Quaker community. (You can read others from 2022, some of which were read during our Sessions, posted here on the FWCC website.) Shared below are links to this year’s epistles from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Please read and share widely, especially with Friends who might not have attended Annual Sessions. The epistle committee seeks to capture what occurred during our time together and how Spirit moved among us. [Read more…] about Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Epistle for Annual Sessions 2022

State of the Meeting Reports, 2021-2022

Written on: July 27, 2022

Spiritual State of the Meeting reports give all of us a glimpse into the communities of meetings in our Yearly Meeting. Together, they create a tapestry that tells the story of our yearly meeting in the last year; a vibrant community engaged in spiritual formation and witness across four states and many experiences of the Spirit. When we are together in residence at an Annual Sessions gathering, there is a thick book with the collected ‘State of the Meeting’ reports. During the years we have gathered online, the special joy of leafing through those printed reports has needed a new model. This year, we again created a virtual “book” of all of the reports. You can access them in this news story and they will also be published in a booklet following Annual Sessions.

An Urgent Call to the Religious Society of Friends

Written on: July 21, 2022

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has endorsed the following Urgent Call to the Religious Society of Friends. This call to action was authored by an ad hoc group of nineteen Friends, more than half of whom are from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. In it they share that they see forces at work in our country that undermine some of our basic values: equality of all people, truth-telling, and deep listening.

Christie Duncan-Tessmer, PYM’s General Secretary says, “This call represents our Quaker faith in action: It expresses Truth as discerned in the discipline of relationship and prayer; it calls all to examine how this revelation can lead them to witness and act. It offers us all fellowship on a challenging journey.”

Yardley Quakers Step Outside for Spiritual Growth and Medicinal Herbal Gardening

Written on: June 25, 2022

This summer, the Friends at Yardley Meeting (Bucks Quarter) are building a labyrinth and a set of raised bed gardens on the grounds of the meetinghouse. The community is committed to create a space for meditation, and to provide a growing site for medicinal herbs to be shared with the Singularity Botanicals supplying health-related products to the Chester, PA community. [Read more…] about Yardley Quakers Step Outside for Spiritual Growth and Medicinal Herbal Gardening