Women-led Mahima empowers women

 

In August 2025, Mahima International became an independent women-led organization, operating under the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund while it established itself as an official nonprofit. It obtained its 501 (c) (3) status in May 2026.

In 2021, Pingala Dhital, who resettled in Spokane in 2008, received funding from Innovia to start a program for women with refugee experience. She moved the project from World Relief, where she worked for 14 years, to Refugee and Immigrant Connections of Spokane in 2022 and then to Thrive International, where she started working in 2023.

"We were founded by and for women with refugee experience," said Pingala, who coordinates the program with a board of seven, four with refugee experience.

"We honor the wisdom women carry, shaped by displacement and endurance. We also recognize the power of being the authors of our own stories as a way to remember our past while building a joyful future in our new homeland," she said.

"We create spaces where women's voices are centered, their knowledge is valued and their identities as contributors, leaders and wisdom-keepers are recognized," continued Pingala, who was born and lived in Bhutan before becoming a refugee.

From her work with resettlement agencies, she realizes many women come from patriarchal societies, and patriarchy prevails in different ways worldwide.

"For most of their lives, many women have been dependent on or been seen as the property of men, so they obey them to be safe," she said. "Because many have been punished for speaking, they learned to be silent."

When they resettled in communities like Spokane, their husbands readily found jobs, often leaving the women dependent.

"Without opportunities to learn English, develop new skills or connect with others in their community, many women experienced extreme social isolation. The physical, social and cultural isolation of women who have experienced domestic violence made it nearly impossible to seek resources available here," Pingala explained.

"In addition, as we come into humanitarian systems, we have been labelled as vulnerable and victims, as if we are helpless or worthless," Pingala continued. "It's easy to push women into isolation. Mothers may reinforce patriarchy for their daughters to protect them from harm."

Pingala told of a young, vibrant woman who joined Mahima. When she started dating a young man, her father followed her and grounded her. She stopped working and was unable to claim the freedom she had found in working. She was afraid it would shame her family and cause pain for her mother and sister.

"As the power of patriarchy continues here, we seek to restore their wholeness and humanity," said Pingala.

Mahima began with listening to two things at once, listening to what a woman has endured and what she hopes for herself.

"In the last few years, we have walked alongside 17 women whose lives have been touched by domestic violence or crisis," she said. "Not every story ended as we hoped.

"We started hosting tea and coffee gatherings called The Third Cup, where we drink tea and listen to each other. We also do beadwork, sewing and candle making with those women."

The baklava made by a woman connected with Mahima is available at Feast World Kitchen, Huckleberry's and Indaba Coffee.

The sewn products, candles and henna arts are available at The Third Cup monthly gatherings.

"The goal is for women to sell products they make to earn some independent income," said Pingala.

More than 400 women have participated in beading, sewing, candle-making and listening projects, and 35 women have graduated from the sewing program and received a new sewing machine and accessory kit. Pingala keeps connected with most of them.

Those efforts foster social connections that uplift women's dignity, provide a sanctuary for them to share their stories and create opportunities to develop relationships with the community grounded in mutual respect, cross-cultural understanding, reciprocity and solidarity.

"We use food, art and stories to develop meaningful, lasting connections between women of many backgrounds," said Pingala, who finds the term, "refugee women," limiting.

"We speak of women with refugee experience, refugee backgrounds or who have lived as refugees. We do not define them by problems they have faced. We separate women from the problems. They are human beings no matter what they have been through," she explained.

"I have been through a lot. I am still a woman. To identify me as a refugee again and again reminds me of and traps me in the trauma," she said, likening it to speaking of people as low-income. "I want to stir empathy and remind people that trauma is something we survived.

"We believe that words and actions can contribute to transforming post-traumatic stress disorder into post-traumatic growth," she explained.

Pingala said the name, Mahima International, and its logo reflect the complex experiences of displacement and resettlement.

"We chose the name Mahima, a Sanskrit word, because it speaks to radical grace through pursuing inner peace and wisdom in the midst of the complex experiences of displacement and resettlement," she said.

The logo incorporates the lotus flower. It symbolizes that beauty and growth can emerge from a muddy pond or from suffering. That invites women to reclaim lives rooted in joy, peace and cross-cultural connection. In those contexts, they are defined not by their displacement but by their wisdom, leadership and healing powers.

"We believe those closest to a problem are also the ones closest to its solution," she added.

"Resettlement offers safety and hope to families who have spent generations in refugee camps. It opens a path for them to connect and contribute to their new communities," she said. "Resettlement is experienced as a profound act of kindness. Those who receive it carry deep gratitude for the chance to start again."

Pingala said resettlement also brings pressure to learn a new language and navigate high-tech environments and complex systems all at once as they adjust. The pressure to assimilate often pushes refugees' identities and stories to the margins. Women are absorbed into systems that fail to see or draw on the strength and resilience they already have.

"At Mahima, we witness each other's grief, but we don't have a savior attitude. We do not minimize the problems or categorize them under an umbrella. We let women own their stories. If I share my story, it is not to say I know someone else's story, because that also silences a woman," she added.

Mahima's work gives women the time they need to open up by creating a space alongside them, so they feel they are equal.

"We believe in the solidarity of learning from each other. Empowerment and transformation cannot be imposed but come from within—like seeds growing in the right conditions," Pingala said

Women rewrite their narratives about themselves in their own terms. Their narratives are not used to evoke pity or raise funds for an organization, but for each woman to share her own truth.

The foundation of this work is human connection—human kindness.

Mahima also facilitates connections among women with refugee experience and women in the local community. Since March, it has hosted The Third Cup from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. on last Fridays at the Woman's Club.

"The first cup, we are strangers. The second cup we are friends. The third cup we are family," said Pingala, referring to a Balti proverb. "Drinking tea or coffee is a ritual in many cultures. By drinking tea, we find joy in connecting people, sitting in spontaneous interaction."

In 2025, more than 100 women who were sewing and beading graduated. Mahima partners with Spokane Zero Waste for employment and Ganesh Himal to sell products.

In June, Mahima shared beading projects women can do in their homes or at the Woman's Club, because some women are cautious about going out in the anti-immigrant climate.

Five or six Story Circles based on language groups started in June when young women were out of school and could help their mothers attend.

"Our goal is not to 'help' women but to follow their lead, to walk with them in an intentional cross-cultural space that creates one-to-one, long-term relationships," said Pingala, who like others at Mahima works part-time on contract—even though it's more than a full-time effort.

"It's especially exciting to give young women a chance to dream and express themselves," she said. "We have been in the margins, not decision-makers. Mahima opens us to our potential to build a whole, joyous life grounded in community."

For information, call 798-5947, email info@mahimainternational.org or visit mahimainternational.org.