Help Us Get to $1,000 in Donations!

WHAT IS KAMA DC?

KAMA DC is a grassroots organization in Washington, DC which provides a platform for immigrants in the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) area to share their skills and stories. KAMA DC is run entirely by volunteers who are passionate about building ties, facilitating cultural exchanges, and starting conversations. We highlight the skills and stories that immigrants bring to our community by hosting skills-based workshops, cooking classes, storytelling nights, the Immigration Film Fest, and more. KAMA DC volunteers began to meet in 2016, and we held our first class in December 2016. We gained official 501(c) non-profit status in 2018.

WHAT KINDS OF PROGRAMS DOES KAMA DC OFFER?

CLASSES - we provide a platform for immigrants to share any skills they want with the DMV community. These range from cultural classes (cooking, dance, art, etc) to professional skills (entrepreneurship, UX design, etc) and everything in between.

STORYTELLING NIGHTS - we host regular storytelling nights for immigrants who would like to share a part of their story. We choose a loose theme and then provide a platform for up to 6 storytellers to share stories inspired by that theme.

IMMIGRATION FILM FEST - For the third year in a row, we hosted the Immigration Film Fest for its 12th iteration, featuring short and feature length films in five in-person events throughout D.C. as well as for virtual streaming. This year's Immigration Film Fest screened 32 films, sold nearly 650 tickets (a 44% increase from 2024), and featured in-person Q&A with 10 of the filmmakers.

WHAT YOUR DONATION DIRECTLY SUPPORTS

Compensation via honorarium for the fantastic immigrant teachers, storytellers, entrepreneurs, and artists that we work with for their time and hard work.
Fees associated with our events, including local businesses and venues, supplies for events, and more.
Planning for next year's Immigration Film Fest, such as through programs that help us reach interested filmmakers during the solicitation stage, costs for venues and supplies, and travel budgets to get filmmakers to DC.

KAMA DC'S IMPACT

Since our start in 2016, we've:

Held 110 events throughout the DMV,
Spotlighted migrants from 71 different countries as storytellers, teachers, podcast guests, filmmakers, and more,
Sold a cumulative 5,698 tickets to our community events.

We work to keep tickets to our community events as affordable and accessible as possible (if not free!) and provide honorarium to every migrant teacher or storyteller that we work with. Help us continue our work by supporting our cause today!

The sold-out, opening-night Community Film Screening, part of the 2025 Immigration Film Fest. This screening at The Festival Center in Adams Morgan featured the short films of three local filmmakers who joined us for Q&A at the event; freshly-made Mexican, Kurdish-Irani, and Ghanaian food; and partner organizations in the DMV that serve immigrant populations--Homes Not Borders, African Communities Together, and Mozaic DMV.

An Immigrant Comedy Night, held in partnership with Immigrant Food and featuring four local immigrant comedians.

KAMA DC - 2025 Giving Tuesday

Support KAMA's mission to create a platform for immigrants to share their skills and stories!