Three PWCS students and a PWCS graduate raised over $5,000 to create 275 feminine hygiene kits to aid displaced refugees located at a housing facility in Leesburg, Virginia. The items collected for refugees are part of an effort to coordinate with Operation Allies Welcome, the branch of Homeland Security that oversees refugee resettlement due to conflict overseas. This initiative was spearheaded through the members involved in the Health Environments Advance Life (HEAL); a student-led organization that aims to improve environmental health for all. Members of HEAL involved in this project are Charles J. Colgan Sr. High School juniors Arman Lateef and Sophia Qamari, Salma Sherdil, a seventh-grade student at Pennington Traditional School, and Leena Sherdil, a 2021 graduate of Colgan High.
As a result of their efforts, the students were invited to a Ramadan Engagement event hosted by the Dar Alnoor Muslim Association of Northern Virginia and the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. At the event, the students discussed their project's successful campaign to fundraise to create these donation kits with Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of Homeland Security. The event also detailed other organizations' efforts involved in coordinating to make refugee resettlement a smooth transition.
Lateef shared, "While attending a volunteer session at a local mosque event, I learned of specific needs among the refugee population. Cultural and language barriers inhibited female refugees from requesting essentials like feminine hygiene products and underwear. To address this health need, Qamari along with a couple of our EN-bassadors volunteers, Leena, and Salma Sherdil, ran a fundraising campaign which raised over $5,000 to create feminine hygiene kits. We contacted officials from Operation Allies Welcome whom we had met at our local mosque, and they helped facilitate this donation."
