The Ujima Friends Peace Center is an African centered worshipping Quaker community in North Philadelphia. The work of the Ujima Friends Peace Center is to reduce violence and provide a safe haven with educational, cultural and recreational opportunities for adults and young people.
Newsletter
Ujima Friends Peace Center Kwanzaa Celebration
On the evening of Ujima (December 28), Ujima Friends Peace Center returned to hosting its Kwanzaa Celebration in-person. Ujima has had a Kwanzaa celebration every year since its inception in 2017. COVID caused the past 3 celebrations to be virtual so it was good to be back in person. This year we focused on celebrating the principle of Collective Work and Responsibility by honoring 5 organizations that have lent support to our ministries. Honored that evening were: the Eastern Stars of Pennsylvania, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Sankofa Freedom Academy Charter School, The Center for Returning Citizens, and the Pan-African Sisterhood Health Initiative. Three highlights of the evening were a musical spoken word duet by our members, Mai Spann Wilson and Jack Drummond, a presentation from PASHI of their trip to Zimbabwe, and a beautiful Black Quaker historical quilt presented to Ujima Friends Peace Center by PASHI. Because of the number of participants, we had our Kwanzaa celebration at Imhotep Institute Charter High School in East Germantown.
Food Give-Away
Our food pantry continues to serve families from North Philly and beyond every first and third Saturday from 8:00 am – 12 noon. It’s wonderful how we are getting to know folks in the community. What has been especially wonderful is the various people who come out to volunteer with us. Come out and bring your family. The couple of hours you spend will make you, your children, and/or grandchildren feel sooooooooooooooooooo good.
Check out the table below to see how many families we have served in the last quarter of 2023.
| # Families | Total family members | |
| October | 420 | 1653 |
| November | 316 | 836 |
| December | 380 | 1599 |
Can we all say WOW! It is amazing what the Spirit of God can do if we are willing to make ourselves available for the work. Ujima may be small in number, but the Spirit is certainly using the Peace Center to do big things in the community.
Freedom School and the Youth Servant Leaders work
This summer our Ujima Freedom School program grew to include 40 middle, high school and college students in an outdoor experential social justice program. Our “Friendly Spaces” program exposed our student to Quaker Spaces while they interogated the intersection between Quaker SPICES, the Nguzo Saba, and social justice concerns in the community. This summer our young people looked at issues in the community through the lens of LOVE. Our servant leaders used bell hooks book, “All About Love” to think about issues related to self love, family love, love in the community and love in the world. The Freedom school servant leaders were honored by the School District of Philadelphia for their intergenerational “Summer of Love”conference.
All of this happened as our servant leaders spent time at Abington Meeting, George School, Salem Meeting, Solebury MM, and Taylor Wildlife Preserve. In addition, several members of Chestnut Hill Monthly Meeting read the book and attended the Summer of Love Conference. Some of our summer servant leaders were involved in a 2 day mediation training at the Ujima Friends Peace Center this past November. They will serve as peer mediators in their school.
PASHI: Pan African Sisterhood Health Initiative
One of the most rewarding partnerships we have is our partnership with PASHI. The Pan-African Sisterhood Health Initiative is a partnership between the Sankofa Artisan’s Guide and the Ujima Friends Peace Center. Since 2019, we have acquired grants for this project from Friends Foundation for Aging. This project brings together elders and young people to make menstrual pads, birthing kits, and recently clothes for young children. PASHI has sent pads to over 23 countries in Africa and the Diaspora. We are grateful for the participation of our members Lynda Black and Claudette Grimes in PASHI. PASHI just had the privilege of traveling to Zimbabwe to present at an international conference on using art for social justice. Our member Claudette Grimes was one of the PASHI Zimbassadors!
More to Come—