Hello, my name is Beverly Ensom. Being a donor to Immigrant Women Services Ottawa (IWSO) is part of my philanthropic giving each year. 

 I came to develop my relationship with IWSO when my mum and aunt were moving to a retirement home. Among the items they didn’t need anymore were their precious sewing machines. Those machines had made and mended many articles of clothing, curtains and upholstery over the years for two generations of our family.  Finding a good home for them, where they would be used and appreciated, was part of easing these two lovely ladies into the next phase of their lives: retirement.

 To be honest, it didn’t take long for our family to figure out that immigrant women could make very good use of sewing machines. With a simple search of the Internet and a quick phone call, we were thrilled to learn that IWSO would love to be the recipient of our two sewing machines that were in excellent condition.

 I remember they weighed a tonne, so we assigned the delivery task to my teenage son. He had to climb a couple of flights of stairs with those sewing machines, one in each hand, but when he completed the delivery, he reported that he was met with a very warm welcome, and he felt like a hero!

 Our family has always tried to know the people around us in Ottawa, even those we don’t see every day. We were glad to meet the women at IWSO, and to learn about the extraordinary work they do for immigrant and racialized women in Ottawa and the surrounding areas. More recently, as our consciousness of immigration issues increased, especially the challenges that face women, our response was to become regular donors to IWSO.