CAAP founder and ACCESS Deputy Executive Director Maha Freij was honored Oct. 19 in Washington by the American Task Force for Palestine (ATFP) with a Distinguished Service in Philanthropy Award.
Each year, ATFP honors the contributions of Palestinian Americans who have enriched their community and provided great service or unique achievement in the U.S. In addition to her efforts spearheading the creation of CAAP – a national program based on a community foundation model that leverages the collective giving of Arab Americans – ATFP recognized Freij for the key role she played in raising funds to create the nation’s only Arab American National Museum.
Following the award ceremony in Washington D.C., Freij traveled to Boston to visit two of CAAP’s grantees – Center for Arabic Culture (CAC) and the Boston Palestine Film Festival. Freij was very impressed by the 5th Annual Boston Palestine Film Festival, saying that in particular, “the program celebrating the legacy of Edward Said on Oct. 22 was excellent. I really enjoyed the performances by Palestinian students at Berklee’s College of Music.” While in Boston, Freij also attended a reception hosted at CAC where she discussed CAAP’s mission with members of the Boston Arab American community.