LEWISTON — The Maine Community Foundation, through its Androscoggin Fund along with the People of Color Fund, has recently donated $12,000 to help empower immigrant women.

The grant will provide for self-help classes for adult women coordinated through a Lewiston nonprofit, the Somali Bantu Community Mutual Association of Lewiston/Auburn (www.SBCMALA.org).

Under the grant, Somali Bantu women meet weekly in several locations around Lewiston-Auburn. In their classes they work on their English-speaking skills, learn math, computer literacy, citizenship and household budgeting, according to Bates College Anthropology Department Associate Professor Elizabeth Eames.

The meetings help immigrant women in the Somali Bantu Community learn to adapt in a new culture and overcome a long history of gender and ethnicity-based disadvantage, Eames said.

The Maine Community Foundation partners with donors and nonprofits to strengthen Maine communities. For more information, visit www.mainecf.org or call 1-877-700-6800.