Woman with Wings

Home icon Home

"There is great wealth in sharing your creativity and compassion in your own, unique way. By doing so, you become a leader, a mentor - A Woman with Wings - that brings about positive change - to yourself, your family, your community, and ultimately the world - one girl, one woman, one person at a time."

Patricia Varga, A Woman with Wings

The Kolkata Crusade

Sunday, 18 July 2010 00:09

After working 27 years as a speech therapist and educational consultant in New Jersey schools, Rosalie Giffoniello spent the summer of 1999 in Kolkata (Calcutta) India, inspired by the humanitarian work of Mother Teresa. There she donated her professional services to one of Mother Teresa's homes, an orphanage for physically and mentally challenged children.

She was shocked by what she found. While the children were clean and well fed, they were left to lie all day on the floor or in their cribs, without any toys or meaningful stimulation, leading them to engage in autistic-like behaviors. Rosalie immediately recognized that these children needed educational and physical therapy programs to enrich their lives. She spent two months at the orphanage teaching many of them how to walk, to feed themselves and dress themselves.

A Window Between Worlds

Thursday, 14 January 2010 01:23

"At the beginning I thought, 'How could cutting and gluing my thoughts on paper be helpful?' However, by the end of the session, I was in tears - healing tears. I could see how my abuser beat the sunrays out of my life. Just as the sunrays break through on a stormy day, I too will break through my storm and shine again.”

The feelings shared by this domestic abuse survivor are echoed by so many of the participants in A Window Between Worlds’ healing art programs. Most wonder how art can possibly assist them in healing the trauma they have suffered, some for countless years. Yet after experiencing just one art workshop, they emerge stronger, more self-reflective, and best of all hopeful.

A Window Between Worlds was established as a way of using art as a healing tool for abused women and children in 1991. “Art provides a critical window of safety to release pain that’s been trapped. And it becomes a window of courage, a window of relief, even a window of joy. Art truly becomes a Window Between Worlds in the hearts and lives of these women and children.” Says AWBW Founder and Executive Director, Cathy Salser.