Mercy Henderson
Who is Mercy?
Born in Liberia, West Africa, she migrated to the United States of America with other family members as refugees and lived in Memphis for her first two years then moved to Minnesota in 2003. In 2009, Mercy moved to Portland, Oregon, and later enrolled in Concordia University School of Social Work as a transfer student, 2014-2017. She graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Degree.
As a student, Mercy worked in many capacities: Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA II), Community Health worker (CHW) and Community Liaison, while volunteering regularly. During these times, she develops a passion for working with others, specially with those who have gone through life trauma like she has, to help bring a peace of mind and healing to them.
Because of her lived experiences and passion, she understands that after a person has experienced a real-life trauma for many years as a refugee, or in any situation, it is not easy to simply unwind from those experiences. She understands that it takes people who care and understand (mentors, coaches, teachers and social workers) to help manage those experiences. As a result, she likes to work with individuals in communities to understand their unique needs and to help them find healthy perceptions of themselves which strengthen their ability to navigate the system for resources, which many times is not easy to navigate.
When she is not at work, she continues to work on Mercy Connections by connecting with individuals and other businesses and many other projects in the community that help people, spending time with her family, and travelling the Oregon Coast to enjoy its beauty.
How did she get here?
With her experiences working with communities, her passion for helping others deepen, especially when she thinks of her life in refugee camps. In the refugee camps where she lived for many year, she watched how often death would occurs. Death in the refugee camp occurs to a point as if it was a norm to watch people died. Even though we were not on the ground where war was being fought, we continued to die almost daily. Mercy beliefs that people in the camps were dying because besides the lack of basic needs such as food, water, proper sanitation, medicine, housing and the stress of living in refugee camps, it was simply due to the lack of people who care.
In our communities here in Portland, she has also observed and learned that people are still faced with lot of other challenges in the African refugees and immigrant communities: many have no health insurance, they lack of culturally specific education on the harmful use of tobacco and various other drugs, someone to advocate for the older adults, families and individuals who cannot, especially in the doctor’s office. In addition, she has also observed that many young people do not see or go beyond high school education.
She love to work with these communities to change that by seeking information and connecting people and resources. Because of her lived experiences and passion, she understands that after a person has experienced a real life trauma for many years as a refugee, it is not easy to simply unwind from those experiences. It takes people who care and understand (mentors, coaches, teachers and social workers) to help manage those experiences. As a result, she loves to work with adults, families and individuals in communities, especially the refugees, immigrant and non-immigrants communities to understand their unique needs and to help them find healthy perceptions of themselves to strengthen their ability navigating the system for resources, which many times is not easy to navigate.
With the following degree, certification, and experiences, she hopes do the work set before her.
Mayme Cawvey
Mrs. Mayme Cawvey serves as a member of the Mercy Connection Board of Directors. Professionally, Mayme is a “Consultant and a Leadership Coach” who enjoys seeing leaders grow and develop their professional and personal skills. She’s a strategic leader that believes there are various means to improve and achieve success. As an Army veteran, she’s passionate about volunteering with military veterans and always seek opportunities to serve the community.
Mayme is a full-time student at Walden University, pursuing her degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
During her spare time, she enjoys reading, hiking, traveling, and listening to inspirational speakers.
Board of Directors Position
We are always looking for committed individuals that can help us achieve our goals to connect to empower Africans and their communities.
Please fill up the following form and we will contact you. We will love to meet you in person so, you can experience first hand our passion for our community and the services we provide for them.
