Our Village Keepers

Soraya is a visionary leader, birthkeeper, and maternal health advocate whose life and work are the living expression of her maternal lineage’s dream. Through her, the prayers of grandmothers and generations past rise into form. This sacred calling is not just a profession—it is her spiritual charter. A covenant made with her ancestors to restore what was interrupted, and to reclaim birth as a divine, sovereign act.

She is her sister’s keeper, her mother’s baby, and her grandmother’s pride and joy—a village child raised in Xada Igreja, Picos, Cabo Verde, where community care and ancestral wisdom were not concepts, but ways of life. Now rooted in New Bedford, she carries the essence of Cabo Verde and the pulse of her people in all that she does.

As the Founder & CEO of Sacred Birthing Village (SBV), Soraya leads a transformative movement to restore ancestral birthing knowledge across the Black Diaspora and the African Continent. Through SBV, she is building a maternal restorative village—a sanctuary where birthing people and families are witnessed, honored, and empowered through the full arc of the childbearing continuum.

With over nineteen years of experience in human services, Soraya has served as a birthkeeper, holistic birth consultant, mental health clinician, and lifelong advocate for maternal and reproductive justice. Her care is deeply spiritual, culturally rooted, and grounded in the knowing that birth is a portal, not a procedure.

Through her practice, the Maternal Nurturing Collective, she offers full-spectrum support from conception to postpartum. Her offerings include healing circles, ancestral consultations, and ceremonies that guide women, families, and communities through the sacred rebirth that childbirth invites.

Formally trained in mental health counseling, perinatal mental health, postpartum care, and holistic midwifery, Soraya is currently deepening her studies with the Matrona Holistic Midwifery Program, Art of Birth Midwifery with Naoli Vinaver, and the Massachusetts Midwifery Alliance. Her work integrates quantum midwifery, ancestral medicine, and wise woman traditions to ensure every birthing person is deeply supported, honored, and held.

Her impact reaches far beyond the birth room—Soraya is a respected facilitator, speaker, and movement builder. She serves as Co-chair of Birth Equity Justice Massachusetts, sits on the Massachusetts Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee, and formerly served on the Racial Inequities in Maternal Health Special Commission under Governor Baker, helping to shape statewide advocacy and policy grounded in liberation, autonomy, and justice.

At the heart of it all, Soraya is a mother of two powerful soul-liberators and teachers, whose lives illuminate her path and remind her daily that resistance, healing, and joy are intertwined.

Fluent in Cape Verdean Creole, Spanish, and Portuguese, she creates spaces that are radically inclusive, culturally congruent, and deeply honoring of all people.

A revolutionary force in the birth justice movement, Soraya is fiercely committed to building the village, restoring ancestral pathways, and holding sacred space for others to step fully into their divine power—just as the village once did and continues for her. And just as her ancestors dreamed she would.

As the Liberation Steward of Community Wealth at Sacred Birthing Village, Sister Sheryle Tamagini tends to the financial soul of our movement. With sacred attention and a deep commitment to resource justice, she nurtures the ecosystem of funding, relationships, and reciprocity that sustains and expands our collective liberation.

Sister Sheryle was raised in a culture of women, she is a sister, cousin, daughter, niece, granddaughter and mother. She brings her sisterhood and sense of protection and care to the village and to her work.

She does more than secure grants—she channels abundance. She draws on her writing experience to tell our story in a way that honors our ancestors, uplifts the brilliance of our people, and invites funders into right relationship with our vision. Through her stewardship, resourcing becomes a sacred act—a reclamation of the wealth our communities have always held in spirit, story, and strength.

She is a bridge between vision and sustainability, building partnerships in our community and ensuring that our work is sovereign, well-resourced, and prepared to thrive beyond systems that were never built for us. With each proposal and relationship, she waters the roots of our Birth Sanctuary vision, helping it grow into a living testament of what’s possible when liberation is fully funded.

As the Rhythm Keeper of Collective Care at Sacred Birthing Village, Sister Vanila Silva is the sacred thread and steady drumbeat of our village. She tends the daily rhythms of our SisterFriend Kinship Program: Our Sister’s Keeper, embodying the care, coordination, and deep listening required to move this sacred work forward.

Vanila is both strategist and soul-tender—holding space for our SisterFriends and Little Sisters with unwavering presence and integrity. She ensures that the care flowing through our programs is not just efficient, but ancestrally aligned. Her leadership reflects our values in action: community-rooted, radically loving, and steeped in Black joy and liberation.

As she weaves relationships, rituals, and responsive structures across our programs, Vanila reminds us what it means to lead from the heart—and to build a village where every offering, every life, and every story is seen, honored, and held.

Position Title: A Sacred Role in Family Engagement, Liberation Navigation & Communal Care Stewardship

At Sacred Birthing Village (SBV), we are not building programs—we are birthing a maternal restorative ecosystem, rooted in ancestral memory, community power, and revolutionary love. Our work is to restore what colonization tried to strip from us: communal care, sacred witnessing, and Black and Brown birthing sovereignty.

As we move toward realizing our full Birth Sanctuary vision, this role is a sacred investment in what we are already building: a living, breathing Village of SisterFriends, families, birthworkers, and care tenders walking together toward collective liberation.

We are calling in a Sacred Community Connector & Village Tender Organizer—a care steward, organizer, and cultural facilitator who can build trust, mobilize community, and guide both families and volunteers with deep integrity, cultural grounding, and revolutionary vision.

This is a sacred calling—not just a job. A weaving of heartwork and headwork. A bridge between those who need care and those who are ready to give it with reverence.

🌿 Your Sacred Role

👣 Family Engagement & Sacred Navigation

• Build trusted, reciprocal relationships with Little Sisters, SisterFriends, and their kin.
  

• Co-create spaces of healing, rest, and connection through support circles, ceremonies, and storytelling gatherings.
  

• Support families in navigating housing, healthcare, postpartum, and holistic wellness through ancestral wisdom, advocacy, and resource connection.
  

• Serve as a point of continuity and spiritual anchoring through each family's journey.
  

🌾 Village Tender Facilitation & Volunteer Stewardship

• Recruit, onboard, and mentor our growing network of Village Tenders—community members offering hands-on support (meals, rides, companionship, ceremony).
  

• Facilitate monthly Village Gatherings for shared learning, reflection, and rejuvenation.
  

• Ensure Tenders receive care too—through rituals, rest, and regular check-ins.
  

🔥 Advocacy, Cultural Education & Organizing

• Train and support SisterFriends and Village Tenders with tools for birth justice, trauma-informed care, and culturally rooted advocacy.
  

• Co-lead workshops and family events centered in parenting liberation, postpartum healing, and maternal wellness.
  

• Mobilize community in times of need—through mutual aid, storytelling, and aligned action.
  

🧭 Program Strategy & Storytelling

• Maintain living directories of aligned services and sacred practitioners.
  

• Gather qualitative data that reflects transformation, not just transactions.
  

• Collaborate with SBV’s communications team to uplift stories of resistance, beauty, and impact.
  

🤝 Partnerships & Movement Building

• Build authentic relationships with midwives, doulas, elders, youth, cultural leaders, and grassroots organizers.
  

• Represent SBV in coalitions, learning spaces, and movement gatherings—with the heart of the people at the center.
  

• Serve as a steward of our cultural ethos and a visionary for our future sanctuary.
  

💫 Who You Are

• A cultural worker, community organizer, or birthkeeper with deep love for BIPOC families and ancestral care traditions.
  

• Experienced in grassroots organizing, mutual aid, or perinatal support.
  

• A relationship-builder and bridge-walker, fluent in the languages of both community and systems.
  

• Committed to healing justice, abolitionist frameworks, and care without condition.
  

• Multilingual or grounded in language justice (Spanish, Cape Verdean Kriolu, Haitian Kreyòl, Portuguese) is a plus.
  

• You hold sacred boundaries, powerful tenderness, and revolutionary clarity.
  

🌀 What We Offer

• A sacred role inside a liberatory movement
  

• Flexibility and hybrid work rooted in trust
  

• A deeply connected and interdependent team
  

• Ongoing mentorship, growth, and community care
  

• Purpose-led work in alignment with your calling
  

• A seat at the altar of radical reimagination
  

🌻 An Invitation to Co-Conspire

We are still weaving full funding for our Birth Sanctuary and care-centered infrastructure. This role is essential now — and we invite funders, partners, and community members to invest in it with love and urgency.

Whether you are called to apply, share, donate, or amplify, know this: you are already part of the Village.

📩 Apply by sending your letter of interest, resume, and/or story of calling to: maternalrestoration@sbvsouthcoast.org

🌐 Learn more: www.sbvsouthcoast.org

Your presence is power. Your care is sacred. Welcome to the Village.

At Sacred Birthing Village (SBV), storytelling is a sacred technology. It is how we remember, reclaim, and rebirth our future. As we tend to the sacred work of building our Birth Sanctuary, we are calling in a Story Weaver of the Revolution—someone who will tend our digital hearth, carry our voice into the world, and help make visible the invisible labor, brilliance, and healing of our people.

This role is not about content creation—it’s about cultural curation. It’s about weaving truth, joy, and ancestral wisdom into language and imagery that reflects who we are and what we’re building. We are seeking someone who understands that communications are ceremony, that captions are spells, and that visibility is liberation.

While this position is currently unfunded, we are inviting visionary funders, partners, and supporters to help us make this sacred role sustainable. The stories we tell now shape the future we are birthing.

Your Sacred Role:

📣 Radical Communications & Digital Stewardship

• Develop and carry out communications rooted in joy, sovereignty, and ancestral power

• Steward our social media channels (Instagram & Facebook), website updates, and newsletter flow

• Collaborate with the SBV team to translate program work into powerful narratives, campaigns, and visuals

🪶 Story Gathering & Amplification

• Document and uplift stories of SisterFriends, Village Tenders, Little Sisters, and community care in action

• Protect the integrity of our people’s stories by practicing consent-based, dignity-centered storytelling

• Create multi-lingual, accessible, and culturally resonant content that reflects the fullness of our village

🔥 Movement Building & Engagement

• Share calls to action, fundraisers, and community updates in a way that feels aligned and alive

• Help build our presence in local and national birth justice spaces through digital campaigns

• Elevate the voices and wisdom of our ancestors, elders, and youth in every platform

You May Be the Story Weaver If You:

• Are a skilled writer, visual storyteller, or digital cultural worker with a liberation lens

• Have experience or deep interest in reproductive justice, birth work, or ancestral healing

• See Instagram not just as a tool—but as a village square, altar, and archive

• Know how to honor nuance, hold contradictions, and uplift truth with care

• Believe storytelling is healing and that media can be a path to liberation

What We’re Dreaming Into Reality:

We envision this role as a fully-funded, part-time position with flexibility, creative freedom, and community support. But until then, we are holding space—welcoming those who are ready to join the circle or fund the fire.

An Invitation to Funders & Supporters

To build a world where our people thrive, we must also build the narratives that guide us there. This role is essential to lifting up the stories, dreams, and truth-telling that sustain our movement.

We invite you—funders, donors, co-conspirators—to invest in this sacred offering. Your support helps us amplify the voices of our community, illuminate our work, and carry the vision of the Birth Sanctuary far and wide.

📩 To apply or support this role, email: maternalrestoration@sbvsouthcoast.org
🌐 Learn more: www.sbvsouthcoast.org

🌀 Your words are spells. Your story is sacred. Your voice belongs in the Village. 🌀