New Pittsburgh Project To Help Marginalized Women

For release on July 8th, 2019

NEW PITTSBURGH PROJECT TO HELP MARGINALIZED WOMEN
Project Launches with a Campaign to Reach Women Affected by the Border Crisis

PITTSBURGH, PA (July 2, 2019) – After years of delivering leftover food from weddings among the homeless in Pittsburgh, Sandra Villarroel, a wedding photographer, owner of Sandrachile, decided she wanted to offer an additional type of help, exclusively to women. 

With the idea of repurposing what people already own, she collects unwanted makeup bags (such as Ipsy), travel size toiletries, and makeup. She delivers these items, along with a personal, handwritten note, to marginalized women. The name of this new project is Worth Manifesto, and Sandra is hoping that this unrequested yet intentional gift helps the most vulnerable women by uplifting their spirits and reminding them of their self worth. 

During the first month of Worth Manifesto, hundreds of donations have been received and are now being distributed among homeless women in South Side and Downtown Pittsburgh. The outpouring of support encouraged Sandra to launch a website and new campaign, which is to gather 1,000 bags to send to help the women at the border crisis.

The first batch of bags is going to the respite center in McAllen, TX, where countless men, women, and children refugees stop to rest, have a warm meal, shower and change into clean clothing. According to the director of the respite center, an average of 300 women go through this center daily.

Donations for the border crisis will be received for one month, until August 1. Whatever is received after that date or beyond these 1,000 bags will continue to be distributed among other women, locally and across the country.

Sandra Villarroel, also known as Sandra Chile, is an immigrant, former undocumented, and former homeless, who escaped an abusive household in Chile at age 15. She has been a wedding photographer based in Pittsburgh for the past 5 years, where the opulence of weddings conflicted with her past, so she found a way to bridge the gap between these two worlds by encouraging couples to give her the leftover food after weddings. Her insight into the homeless world made her wish she had something else to give to homeless women, something that would give them hope and make them feel special. This is how she founded Worth Manifesto.

Worth Manifesto is motivating the community to help reach the goal of gathering 1,000 bags by the end of July. They are especially looking for personal notes in Spanish, handwritten with encouraging messages of hope, to women who currently might be downhearted. Donations of bags and travel size toiletries can be dropped at 932 Mirror Street, Pittsburgh. To learn more about the types of donations that are needed and to donate money for the shipment of bags to the border, visit www.worthmanifesto.com/bordercrisis

Worth Manifesto is a project that seeks to empower marginalized women through acts of kindness and words of encouragement. To learn more, people can visit online at WorthManifesto.com and follow @worthmanifesto on Facebook and Instagram.

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If you would like more information, please contact Sandra Villarroel at worthmanifesto@gmail.com 412.444.5268

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