National Organization for Women helps those in need by sponsoring a Holiday Drive to benefit Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter

Lending a helping hand to other women in need, new club National Organization for Women (NOW) started a Holiday Drive to provide necessities to women in the Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter (LAWS) who are victims of abuse.

With Christmas right around the corner, these donated items will serve as gifts for many women this holiday season. NOW is providing the student body an opportunity to give back to the community, which is ideally what the holiday season is about, while at the same time showing their values in protecting women, which is exactly what their club is about.

Senior Rea Zulfikar and her friends, including Alice Yeh, Michael Sun, Kathleen Chellman, and Yasmine Isterbadi, had the courage to start this club because they believed that something like this was much needed here at the school.

Zulfikar’s older sister Aman was her primary source of inspiration to bring NOW to Potomac Falls and to bring light to issues against women’s rights.

“There is kind of a lot of things that inspired me. I realize that there is a long way for gender equality to go, so a big part of it was my sister,” said Zulfikar. “I was not really into like anything political or even into the news that much at first. My sister kind of brought me more into it. She informed and educated me more about that stuff.”

This group, along with their sponsor Marguerite Abrey, has set many goals for this club and are on a mission to accomplish all of them.

“Social justice is our primary goal, of course, encompassing all genders, sexualities, races, religions. We do intend on also giving back to the janitors and lunch ladies at PFHS because we feel that they too need equal representation and are underappreciated – considering that the majority of them are also women,” said Sun.

NOW chose to help LAWS as their first community service project because of their need. According to the LAWS website, “the mission of LAWS is to serve adults and children who are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault; to empower, inform and advocate for adults and children; to educate the community about domestic violence and sexual assault and to work towards the elimination of personal and societal violence.”

“We want everybody to support us and our ideals, but at the very least, bring awareness to the issues posed. We wanted to give back to our community and helping women who are in need seemed like the more feministic and right thing to do,” said Sun.

On average, LAWS provides direct services to over 1,000 adult and child victims of domestic and sexual violence each year. From basic everyday toiletries to children’s toys, donations could change a family’s life, but NOW doesn’t plan to stop their community service here.

“We hope to expand our volunteering and community service to benefit not just women, but PFHS and our local community as well,” said Sun. “We hope in the future that this club continues on even beyond this [school] year to show other girls and students that feminism and equality are just as important as academics.”