DWA FANM is recognized as tax exempt under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Dwa Fanm (meaning "Women's Rights" in Haitian) started as a volunteer-run community-based organization in 1999 when a group of eight Haitian and American women from diverse backgrounds met to discuss the state of women's rights in Haitian immigrant communities in the United States and in Haiti. Having established itself as a human rights organization, Dwa Fanm's mission is to empower all women and girls with the freedom to define and control their own lives. Through service, education, advocacy and grassroots programs, Dwa Fanm works to end discrimination, violence, and other forms of injustice in New York City and abroad.

Dwa Fanm's members share a commitment to women's rights as well as to social and legal equality, justice, peace and democracy. We envision a world where women fully and equally participate in processes that favor their well-being and economic independence, where they have the freedom to define their lives and where all girls can develop to their full potential.

We oppose all forms of discrimination and exclusion due to sex, age, color, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, martial or parental status, physical ability, social class and economic status.

We support the right of women to fight exploitation and poverty. We believe women have the right to control their own bodies. We support a woman's right to have children and to not have children, to resist and denounce rape and incest, to marry whom they want to or not to marry. All women have value independent of their relationship to a man and deserve the respect of society. These values represent what many of us define as feminism.