Why GraceWorks exists

Prudence Awinja, founder of GraceWorks, on losing work because she was pregnant, rebuilding with a newborn in her arms, and why no woman should have to choose between her child and her career.

Where I started

I studied finance. My first real offer came in logistics, a field many people still see as a man's world, when my first daughter was not yet one. I took it because I needed the money and the experience.

Some days were brutal. There was a day I left the office at four in the morning and was back at my desk by noon. I felt like I was failing as a mother just as my career was beginning to grow.

I worked hard, and it showed. Within months I was planning operations, then coordinating them. Logistics taught me that results are measurable: you either deliver or you don't. I delivered.

The day work let me go

None of that protected me when I became pregnant.

Two weeks before my daughter was born, as I prepared for maternity leave, I lost my job. It was as if life had called a meeting and decided to restructure everything without consulting me.

Later, with another employer, it happened again. I became pregnant, and I was let go. I don't believe either employer could picture paying a woman while she was away giving birth and caring for her baby.

Working from my maternity bed

When you have bills and a baby, you don't get to pause.

I worked from my maternity bed. I answered emails with a newborn in my arms. I left a baby only a few weeks old in the care of someone I barely knew, because I was afraid that if I stayed home I would lose the work that kept us going. I worked late, at home and under pressure, because the alternative was having nothing at all.

I am not telling you this because I am special. I am telling you because I know I am not.

The season everything fell apart

The months around my daughter's birth needed a comedian, a drama director and several prayer warriors on set.

My marriage nearly broke down. Friendships fell away. At six weeks, my daughter was diagnosed with severe reflux. At three months, I lost the woman who had raised me as her own. At five months, our apartment was auctioned and we were evicted, losing our home and much of what we had built.

I was a new mother facing illness, unemployment, debt and grief, all at once. Honestly, if someone had told me this was the beginning of a testimony, I would have asked to see the script.

Where GraceWorks was born

I did not get through that season alone. Help came, sometimes from people in other parts of the world. And I found refuge in Christ. My circumstances did not change overnight, but my heart, my direction and my sense of purpose did.

As I began to stand again, I started to notice how many women around me carried the same story. Pregnant and let go. Back from maternity leave to find their role given away. Out of work for a few years to care for a child or a parent, then told the gap on their CV made them a risk. Capable women, quietly closed out.

GraceWorks was born from that: my belief that motherhood, caregiving, pregnancy or a career break should not close the door to work, dignity and purpose.

What GraceWorks is for

GraceWorks connects women with meaningful work, whether onsite, hybrid, remote or flexible, and helps them find their footing again whenever they are ready.

It is not about pushing a mother back to work from her maternity bed. It is about making sure that when she is ready, the door is open, and that she chooses the kind of work that fits her life.

For women, GraceWorks is free, always. Every application is read by a person who understands the journey. For employers, it is a way to find capable, committed women, and to show that they will never punish a woman for becoming a mother.

To every woman reading this

If you are pregnant and afraid for your job, if you are back from maternity leave and feel invisible, if you are wondering whether your career can recover after a break: you are not alone.

Your hardest season does not have to be the end of your story. Give yourself grace, and take one step at a time. We will walk with you.

Prudence Awinja
Founder, GraceWorks