Hello and Welcome

If nothing else, the COVID Pandemic demonstrated the need for working together, and taught us how much can be accomplished when all of us work toward a common goal. The officers and members of the East Oakland-Hayward Section of NCNW continue to focus our combined energies on our core goal: to advance the quality of life for African American women, their families, and their communities by providing the relevant services and programs and addressing the needs and concerns of our community.

The East Oakland-Hayward Section—some 60 plus members strong— continues to make substantive donations to organizations that provide direct services, and give assistance to women, children, youth, and the elderly; to veterans; the homeless; and to those living with AIDS and HIV. Did you know about our Panty Pantry? It’s a signature project of the East Oakland-Hayward Section. We collect new panties and donate them to organizations that provide direct services to girls and women who have been victims of sexual assault, domestic abuse, sex-trafficking, or homeless.

East Oakland-Hayward Section is also a proud and very active partner in the Good Health WINs (Women’s Immunization Networks) Initiative. As trusted community messengers, our Section is committed to addressing the importance of how vaccines save the lives of women and children in communities of color. Our Section hosts informative webinar presentations on a number of topics that address health disparities and remove barriers to good health.

Some of our Section’s recent projects include AC Transit Bus messaging where we promoted COVID testing and vaccinations. Similarly, we ran ads in the Post newspaper urging testing and vaccinations, not only for COVID, but for all vaccine preventable diseases. In February 2023 we created and published a coloring book that targets second and third graders and educates them on the role of Blacks in developing vaccinations.

We are proud of these accomplishments, but we are only able to do this through the combined efforts of our members. Consider this an invitation to join the East Oakland-Hayward Section, and become a member of National Council of Negro Women, Inc.(NCNW). We were founded by Mary McLeod Bethune in 1935, and in the ensuing 85 years, NCNW has grown to include more than 200 community-based sections with an outreach to more than 4 million women.

The East Oakland-Hayward Section invites you to join us. We welcome (and need) your experience, expertise, and creativity. More importantly, we welcome your willingness to work hand-in-hand with us as we further the NCNW Mission, and our on-going efforts to empower, inform, and uplift women and children in communities of color.

Jennifer D. King, President