About

Project Sarafina was founded in 2018 with the mission to remove the barriers girls often undergo in their efforts to receive an education. Our programming was aimed at empowering girls by providing access to educational materials, by improving their self-esteem, and by contributing to the development of their communities. Through initiatives in cities across the United States, including Boston, Washington, D.C., Tuskegee, and Atlanta and internationally in Rwanda, Project Sarafina has positively impacted hundreds of girls and their families + communities.

The culmination of our programs led to the evolution of our mission and strategy. Through a critical assessment of our definitions of empowerment\liberation, we evolved our mission to focus on facilitating long-lasting change instead of short-term charity.

We believe an individual’s mental liberation is key to expediting personal development and, eventually, positive communal impact. Given the miseducation peoples suffering under the shadows of colonialism undergo, the loss of self + history has critically stunted communities from affecting genuine change in order to remove systems of oppression.

Our mission is to aid in the mental liberation of women\girls through strategic literacy interventions.

We believe that building girls’ literacy skills and equipping communities with the knowledge of their own history can lead to individual + collective power and, eventually, freedom.

Miriam Hammond founded Project Sarafina while a student at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Her experience as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Kigali, Rwanda prior to enrolling in graduate school inspired her to build a movement to strategically focus on girls after witnessing the compounding social + personal effects liberatory education experiences provide for women\girls. Project Sarafina is the culmination of Miriam’s personal + professional mission to create new worlds that facilitate the holistic wellbeing of people impacted by the violence of colonization.