Formed in August 2017, YouthxWomen is a club that focuses on volunteering and empowering the members through shared ideas and experiences. Through selling handmade bracelets, bake sales, weekend office cleanings, car washing, organizing movie nights, sponsoring sporting events, running raffles, and creating several donation boxes, we raised over $2,000—enough money to cover supplies, food, and tuition for months—to gift to the family of a single mother with five children. The family had gone from dealing with domestic abuse to having only a few potatoes in their fridge and no clothes to subsist on through Almaty’s frigid winter. We hoped our efforts would be more helpful to these victims of domestic violence than being part of a large, faceless, global NGO. Through candid group discussions about privilege, intersectionality, and gender roles, trust-building activities, we turned a fundraising club into a tight-knit community of 23 people with similar ambitions and goals.
