Community Grantees

MS Taman Foundation Press Release 2023

In the year 2023, we have seen widespread humanitarian injustices around the world. In response to these crises, our communities have mobilized, organized, and created impactful change. The Mahmoud S Taman Foundation is proud to have aided these grassroots organizations, non-profits, and individual dedicated community members by providing funding through our Community Grants Program. Over $10,400 was granted this year alone to 10 different organizations and initiatives locally, nationally, and internationally. Since the foundation was founded in 2011, over $130,000 has been distributed as grants to initiatives around the world working hard to improve lives and provide assistance to those in need. The Foundation honors the legacy of Dr. Mahmoud Shawky Taman - a community leader and psychiatrist who lived and served in the Chippewa Valley in Northwestern Wisconsin for 44 years. The Foundation's purpose is to advance missions and projects which strive to better their communities by providing support in areas such as youth education and the arts, mutual aid, food and water insecurity, multicultural and interfaith events and efforts, and international medical aid.

The grantees this year are making tremendous changes in their communities and are driven by small but powerful teams supported often through volunteering, grassroots networks, and mutual aid. Several youth education initiatives supported by the Community Grants program this year were led by individuals dedicated to advocating for children around the world and driven by their passion to uplift the youth of their communities. In Southern Virginia, Burnt Bridges LLC used their community grant from the Foundation to support a free community event supporting local youth by providing backpacks and school supplies to families in the area. Their successful event held in August included a free barbecue, featured food vendors and local businesses, games and activities for the kids, and a backpack drive that distributed over 200 backpacks within their community. In youth education, one of our first recipients of the year was the Boys and Girls Club of Chippewa Falls which supports the local community by providing after-school care and hands-on education for children. They utilized grant funds to support their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiative to ensure their after school child care program is culturally inclusive and focuses on expanding academic, behavioral, and social skills for the youth in the Chippewa Valley. 

We also continued to provide support to previous international community grantees like the more recently established school Kalpak English Academy based in Kyrgyzstan. This vital educational program started by former U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer and Director of the school, Noah Bratcher, provides English language education to rural Kyrgyz students and continuing education programs for educators in their community. In other international education efforts, advocate and educator, Rahat Khpalwak, secured a grant from the Foundation to improve and expand the library at Rokyan High School in Afghanistan, providing needed books for students.

Across the world we saw individual community members like Mrs. Khayraiya Mohamed Arafa taking action to secure funding for local schools like the El Nour School for Girls in Alexandria, Egypt, which is one of the few schools for blind students in Egypt. She utilized funds to ensure adequate and safe housing for young women who are displaced while transitioning between high school and college. Another individually led initiative in Egypt received funds for textbooks and tuition support for students pursuing Islamic Studies under Al Azhar University. These students are advocated for by Ms. Amal El Iraqi who also directed grant funds into the community as food donations for families and provided inaccessible medical supplies and equipment necessary for members of the community seeking safe and proper healthcare. 

Every year the Taman Foundation focuses grant efforts into individuals and organizations that are working tirelessly to end food and water insecurity around the world. This year, local Chippewa Valley community member Miah Renteria advocated on behalf of the Kwarikar Orphan Foundation in Uganda to install a water pump providing fresh water for their community. Back in Wisconsin, repeat grantee Agnes’ Table at the Legacy Community Center utilized grants funds to support their operations providing free meals to the community and families in need of additional support. These grantees have proven their dedicated efforts to providing needed resources to their communities at home and abroad. 

In culture and the arts, the Eau Claire Area Hmong Mutual Aid Association, along with repeat grantees JONAH (Joining Our Neighbors Advancing Hope) and Welcoming New Neighbors, held their annual River Prairie Multicultural Festival to honor the rich cultures of our local community here in Northern Wisconsin through cultural exchange, the arts, and supporting local businesses and organizations run by community members from diverse backgrounds. The Foundation was also proud to support Friends of PBS Wisconsin in The Wisconsin Muslim Project, highlighting Muslim community members through a free and public event involving a photography collection, screening, and diverse panel of Muslim voices from the community. 

In 2023, the Taman Foundation intends to continue to provide financial support for community organizations, projects, and initiatives through funding of grants up to $1000. Our grant recipients this year are a testament of the kindness and passion for transformative change that exists in the hearts of our community members here in Wisconsin and around the world. Advocates and pioneers of justice are needed now more than ever and it is our goal to carry out the legacy of Dr. Taman through grant funding supporting direct action within our communities. 

Our Impact Around the World

The Sydyk Alaichi Uulu Public School #87 in rural Kyrgyzstan received a community grant from the Mahmoud S Taman Foundation and was able to purchase one-hundred Kyrgyz to English dictionaries, twenty English grammar supplements, and twenty English - Kyrgyz - Russian phrasebooks.

This project is facilitated by Noah Bratcher who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kyrgyzstan from July 2019 to March 2020, when all Peace Corps volunteers worldwide were evacuated back to the United States due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, he has worked for the Uyghur American Association, helping to spread awareness of the oppression of the Uyghur people in China. He plans to return to Peace Corps service in Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2021 when Peace Corps hopes to resume its global operations. 

In the image to the right, Sydyk Alaichi Uulu Public School #87 in Kyrgyz-chek village, Kara-Suu Region, Osh Oblast.