Niswa’s Community Services Get a Boost
By Arshia Ghani

Niswa Association recently took a giant step forward in furthering their mission to help the underserved communities of Los Angeles. They held a grand opening ceremony on Sunday, December 11 th for their latest project: a transitional housing facility located in San Pedro. Many long-time supporters and prominent community members were on hand to inaugurate the new building.

The new property has been Niswa’s labor of love for nearly the past two years. It was a long process to negotiate the building’s purchase, obtain the necessary permits and city approvals, and then completely renovate and remodel the historic structure. The end result is a stately two-storey building located on a quiet residential street in San Pedro.

The building contains four separate apartments, each with its own private entrance, kitchen, sitting room, 1 ½ bathrooms and 1 or 2 bedrooms. The building also contains laundry facilities, a large backyard and an office for an on-site counselor or case worker. Niswa Association already owns and operates another building which serves as a women’s shelter for victims of domestic violence.

A grand fundraiser was held a few months ago, with the goal of raising enough funds to complete the construction of this latest building. “As always, the community came out to support Niswa and donated generously. This recent injection of much-needed funds allowed us to stay on schedule with the project and complete construction in 2011, as promised. We could not have done it without the community’s support”, said Faida Barye, Board President of Niswa.

Dr. Maher Hathout, Dr. Shamim Ibrahim and Niswa Board Members cut a ribbon to symbolize the grand opening of the building and Dr. Hathout concluded the ceremony with a few words to the audience about Niswa’s long history and bright future of service to the underserved communities.

For more information about this facility or Niswa Association’s services, please e-mail info@niswainc.org

 

 

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