We know that it is the little things that contribute to our happiness, that build our confidence, and that can provide us with skills that can be useful for our present and future. Simply, this is because everything big starts small.

Beyìyëm, can be loosely translated as ‘dream’ in the West African language of Fang. We chose this term because it exemplifies the purpose of this fund: to contribute to making the dreams of women aged 15 to 21 and 35 to 50 years from African diaspora communities a reality.

We believe that contributing to the dreams of women means creating opportunity – and that when women get opportunities, a whole generation has access to new opportunities too. We think that when women invest in their dreams, they are sending a positive image to new generations of women and building their confidence. They are also better placed to support their daughters to never forget to invest in their own dreams and passions, because these make them unique and they matter.

Similarly, by investing in the dreams of young-adolescent girls, we want to send them a message of support to continue to pursue their dreams and seek opportunities that can help them do so, however big or small.

Our objective is to give grants to 10 women from 15 to 21 years of age, and to 10 women from 35 to 50 years of age in the U.K., Spain, or France to pursue one of their ‘little dreams’, such as enrolling in a driving school to get a driving licence, subsistence funds to volunteer abroad for a few weeks, fees to enrol in a language school abroad, or simply a ticket to travel to the other side of the world to discover! All these are ‘little dreams’ which we feel matter enormously and which can be harder to pursue in certain circumstances where resources are scarce.