Our Staff
Executive team
Liana Jorge Matute LEAD COMMUNITY ORGANIZER |
Liana Jorge Matute has served as Women Encouraging Empowerment’s Community Organizer since February 2018. In her role, Liana has overseen the creation of the Parent Lead Organizers—a group of immigrant women from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds—that are working to revolutionize Revere Public School’s parent engagement policy. As Community Organizer, Liana has grown WEE’s membership through the participatory planning of events with members and in partnership with local organizations in surrounding communities. Liana always aims to elevate local leaders in the Parent Lead Organizers and in determining who leads and moderates WEE events. Along with two other Parent Lead Organizers, Liana is among the first immigrant women to serve in a leadership capacity on the Revere High School’s Parent Teacher Organization. Liana is a licensed dental assistant; she received her training from the Boston Career Institute. Liana’s passion for community organizing and engagement stems from her experiences of racism and discrimination and her desire for future parents and students to experience a welcoming and inclusive school.
|
|
Victoria Vautier is from Argentina. She has a Law Degree from University of Buenos Aires and an International Relations & Public Administration Dual Master Degree from Suffolk University. She has dedicated her work to serving the most vulnerable sectors of society, especially immigrant families. She helped built Together & Free, a coalition of volunteers supporting immigrant families separated at the US border as a result of the Zero Tolerance Policy. Victoria has a long standing commitment to social justice, human rights, and humanitarian crises. Today, she hopes to make a contribution to empower immigrant women and families through the development of educational programs, leadership trainings, and fundraising. |
|
Maja Nadel is a Program Coordinator and part of the Executive team for Women Encouraging Empowerment. She received her MA in Economics from the University of Rijeka in Croatia. She has lived and worked in several countries over the years, and her passion for immigrants’ rights finally led her to MIRA, The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, where she was placed in an Americorps position with WEE in 2017. Maja has a few years of experience teaching English in both Spain and United States , and she is is fluent in Croatian, English and Spanish. In her free time she likes to travel and spend time photographing the outdoors. |
|
Elaine Abrams, a Chelsea, Mass. native, came to Women Encouraging Empowerment (WEE) in 2017 after learning firsthand the challenges of immigrating and starting a new life in a foreign country. After living in San Francisco, Calif. for nearly 10 years, working as a docent at the Asian Art Museum and pursuing a degree in Asian Studies at the California Institute of Asian Studies, she was inspired to move to China. In 1981, she packed up and moved to China where she studied art and culture for two months before embarking on a 14-year adventure in Japan. With little money, no job, no friends, and no Japanese
language skills, she began teaching ESL classes at adult education centers, businesses and universities. While in Japan, she traveled to Burma where she fell in love with a Burmese man with whom she eventually married. Together, they survived the Kobe-Hanshin earthquake in 1995, but they lost everything, including their home. One month later, the couple returned to Massachusetts, but the struggles of starting over yet again took a toll on their marriage. Although she and her husband divorced, Elaine remains active in the Burmese refugee community. Since her return, Elaine has taught ESL classes to adults and children. In addition to teaching at WEE, Abrams teaches at Revere Community School and volunteers mentoring first graders at the Garfield School in Revere. In addition, she is currently involved with Syrian refugee resettlement programs. |
“When I moved to Japan, I experienced the struggles and loneliness of being ‘a stranger in a strange
land.’ I often felt like a child with no one to guide me and struggled as a foreigner in an otherwise
homogeneous society,” says Abrams. “However, I was determined to live this adventure and experience.
It is my pleasure to be part of WEE where women of all racial, cultural, religious, and economic
backgrounds mesh as one.”
|
Siham Sherif is originally from Libya. She was born in the United States, but her family decided to go back to Libya when she was only 2 years old. She went to University of
Libya and earned her Bachelors Degree in English. She has experience in Lecturing. She taught English at the University of Libya, Tripoli, Libya for ten years. As a result of the political unrest and instability in Libya in which she lost her dearest brother, she decided to come to the United States in 2015. On getting to the United States, Siham says she had to start from “zero”. The transition was hard but she had a lot of support. She heard about WEE from her cousin that was taking English classes here. She knew what it meant to be an immigrant and starting from scratch in a new country. She wanted to make a difference in someone’s life. She became a member and very vocal and very influential in the immigrant community. Siham started teaching and instructing Level 1 ESOL Adult classes for beginners as well as volunteer as a translator and organizer in the Arabic speaking community. She has a passion and dedication to work with women despite their religion, race, gender, culture and country of origin. She wants to be a voice in marginalized and low-income communities because she believes and has faith that we are here for a reason and a season, so make everyday count by reaching out and helping someone. It is that simple. with their struggles and challenges. |
"I know what it means to lose everything and leave your family behind and come to safety. Libya was a great country before the unrest, we were happy and had everything we desired but after that it became so so bad and unsafe. We used to hear gunshots every single night, you can not go outside because of fear to die or get hurt. I did not want my daughter and son to go through that, they complained of the gunshots and seeing people die. I did not want this situation have power over my family and life so we decided to leave everything behind and move. It was not easy at all since we did not have an American Embassy anymore in Libya so we had to go all the way to Tunisia. It was not easy, it was not easy at all...” Siham says
"I think WEE is special in a way that it encourages and helps woman and low –income families to be confident and be able to advocate and organize for themselves and also be leaders in their families, communities and their lives. This is empowering."
|
The “Parent Lead Organizers” of Women Encouraging Empowerment(WEE) has been working on a project that aims to strengthen school-family relationships, facilitate parent participation in schools, and increase family leadership opportunities in schools to ultimately benefit student learning in Revere public schools.Grounded in our belief in the centrality of family engagement to student learning and fully aware of obstacles for parent active participation in theirchildren’s school experiences, particularly immigrant and refugee families,we will be collaborating with the District to produce 1) a family engagement policy, 2) a family-friendly handbook and 3) overall improve school-family communication, with an emphasis on overcoming linguistic barriers toincrease family participation in their children’s schooling experiences.
|
