What Is MWASI?
MWASI Foundation is a nonprofit organization built on the belief that when a woman rises, everyone around her rises with her. We exist to create structured, intentional pathways that move women and girls from potential to purpose, and from stability to legacy.
We are a multi-stage development system designed to meet women where they are and walk with them toward where they are meant to be.
"Every woman carries within her the potential to transform her family, her community, and her nation, if she is given the chance."
The Journey
Where It Began
Memorial Day weekend, 2018. Our founder stepped away from her daily routine for a solo retreat. No agenda, no obligations, just uninterrupted space to think.
In that stillness, a vision crystallized. She had spent years watching talented women around her go unnoticed and under-resourced, not because they lacked ability, but because they lacked access and a clear path forward.
She decided to build that path. An organization designed to unlock what women already carry and connect them to real opportunities. She called it Talents Within.
Sponsoring 20 women vendors
to showcase their work.
She Deserves It
In 2019, Talents Within launched its first fundraising campaign: She Deserves It. The goal was to raise enough to sponsor 20 women entrepreneurs so they could participate in an upcoming trade exhibition in Ivory Coast.
The campaign covered exhibition costs for each vendor, giving them a professional platform to showcase their products, connect with buyers, and be seen by an audience they could not have reached on their own.
For many of them, it was the first time someone had invested in their visibility. It set the standard for everything that would follow.
Salon Women Impact Twenty (SWIT)
In February 2020, our founder traveled to Ivory Coast and organized Salon Women Impact Twenty (SWIT), a two-day trade exhibition in Abidjan where 20 women entrepreneurs showcased their products and businesses to the public.
Alongside the exhibition, each vendor had access to free workshops on branding, sales, and business development, sessions that would have cost most of them money they did not have.
Among the 20 vendors was Miss Julienne, a widow of over 70 years and president of a cooperative of more than 100 women. She had developed a grain product made from plantain unlike anything else on the market and had been featured on French 24. She was one of the most capable entrepreneurs in the room.
She could not access a grant. The only thing standing between her and funding was a basic order form proving demand for her product. It never came through.
"Miss Julienne passed in 2022. She never received the funding she deserved. Her story is the reason MWASI exists, and the reason we will not stop building."
In memory of Miss Julienne
Some of the women who shaped this journey are no longer with us. Their lives, their work, and their spirit are woven into everything MWASI builds.
Talents Within Becomes MWASI
Six years of seeds. Six years of stories, sorrow, and faith. Through COVID, loss, and the continued drive of the original vision, the work only grew bigger.
Talents Within became MWASI Foundation. A name that carries the heartbeat of every woman it was built to serve. MWASI, Bantu for "woman," because this has always been about her.
MWASI Foundation is now official, and the real work is just beginning.
Our Values
These are not statements on a wall. They are the decisions we make every day.
Purpose Over Pity
We do not approach women as problems to solve. We approach them as leaders in process. Our work is empowerment, not rescue.
Structure Creates Freedom
Real change follows a path. Our model is intentional, staged, and built so that no woman is left behind because she skipped a step she needed.
Global by Design
MWASI is not a local initiative that went global. It was born global. We build for women in the U.S. and around the world with the same intentionality.
Generational Thinking
We are not building for today. We are building for the daughter who will inherit what her mother built, and the community shaped by both of them.
Premium, Not Charity-Looking
The women we serve deserve excellence. Our brand and our programs reflect the value and dignity of every woman who walks through our doors.
Community as Currency
A woman alone can change her life. A community of women can change the world. We build together, celebrate together, and establish together.
MWASI was not born from a business plan. It was born from a burden, a deep knowing that women across the world are sitting on gifts, ideas, and potential that the world has not yet seen. Simply because the path is not always defined.
I watched Miss Julienne lead a cooperative of over 100 women with nothing but ingenuity and determination, and still be turned away. I watched a woman I had known since childhood leave school in middle school because no one opened the door. I could not unsee either of them.
MWASI is that pathway. For every woman who was told no. For every girl who never got the chance. And for every woman who is ready to rise.
Ready to Be Part of This?
Whether you donate, partner, or simply spread the word, you are part of building a world where every woman rises.
