Giving circle funds Hmong community projects

(I see Wishadoo as a giving circle; I love that term)


Viv Ncaus, the Milwaukee Hmong women's giving circle, started only two years ago, but it's already drawing national attention for the inspiring story of how it began and the impressive start it's made.

The circle grew out of an incident that happened a few years ago when a Hmong woman was killed by her estranged husband and there was no one to bury her. The husband's family said she was seeing another man, and therefore it was not their responsibility. Members of her own family disowned her, saying she was no longer part of their clan and they could not risk upsetting the spirits by burying her.

So a group of Hmong women pooled their resources to pay for the woman's burial, said Pa Vang, the former chair of the Hmong American Women's Association and a circle co-founder.

From that experience and the realization that other women might face the same situation, Vang and other women decided to form the giving circle through the Women's Fund of Greater Milwaukee in 2010. But they also realized they needed to do more to support Hmong women and to provide the resources to help women start a business, or undertake educational and cultural projects. They chose the name Viv Ncaus, which means "sisters" in Hmong and stands for "a sisterhood funded by sisters," said May Tong Chang, another co-founder.

FULL ARTICLE: http://m.jsonline.com/more/news/milwaukee/199784441.htm