We are proud to show off Mujeres that have made an impact!
'Mujeres Con Animo Alumnis
What we did:
As a team, Mujeres con Ánimo proposed a problem about which we wanted to spread awareness. Once this problem was targeted, we began to brainstorm solutions and ways to reach our goals. First of all, we attended events to support women and to spread awareness of human rights. One goal we set and accomplished was to celebrate International Women's Day with a week of activities at our school. We all worked together to create an activity for each day of the week. We made a poster where women at our school (and people who support women) could write the name of a woman that inspires or empowers them. Another poster was set up with a mirror to let women see what they love about themselves and feel more confident about who there are on the inside AND outside. Additionally, we created compliment cards for people to send to inspiring women at school or in their families and communities, and each day during the week, we read an inspiring fact about an inspiring woman in our daily announcements.
Beyond these activities, our team also made presentations to spread human rights awareness to all of our peers. This presentation happened during Power Reading, which all students have every Wednesday and Friday. Our presentation consisted of our mission to spread awareness on women and immigration rights, our problem, our solution, and an invitation to attend and participate in our Resource Fair. Every Wednesday and Friday, we met to brainstorm ideas for this Resource Fair and put them into action. We emailed and called various organizations to help provide awareness and resources to our families, friends, and community.
Before school closures all across the LA area, the Action Committee aroused a sense of enthusiasm within the school to attend the Women’s March through flyers and articles. Additionally, the team successfully held a Presidential Candidate Forum informing students about presidential candidates and the importance of voting. The Documentary Committee continued to interview resilient women in our community and integrate these interviews into our documentary. Due to the abrupt school closures, our team project took a slight turn. Instead of screening the completed documentary this year, we will create and release teasers on our Instagram page throughout the end of the school year. The documentary will then be screened next school year. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we understand that helping our community is essential in improving the state of the world and alleviating some of the stress present in low-income families. Hence, a portion of our grant money will be donated to organizations that are playing an essential role in vanquishing COVID-19. Through our team’s Instagram, we will promote organizations supporting immigrants during this crisis and share inspirational/self-care posts to encourage positivity and hope.
REFLECTION
What we did Outcome:
Through a documentary that gives an insight into the lives of women with experiences with immigration in our community, and by volunteering to support immigrant communities in the LA area, our team will uplift the voices of immigrant women in our community, engage the hearts and minds of people from all backgrounds in and around our community, and do all of this with the goal of shaping LA into an environment that empowers women and values the strength, power, and labor of immigrant women. A collection of interviews and testimonies from women in our community will encourage others to participate and become active in our project. By screening our evocative documentary, we hope to arouse a sense of understanding and knowledge within the people in our community, helping them become aware of the immense value women have always had within them. We also plan to build in testimonies of our own experiences exploring and engaging with the immigrant rights landscape in LA (by volunteering at events, attending marches, registering voters in and around our school, hosting monthly informational events at our school, etc.) to build interest and engagement within our small Lennox community that will hopefully bring our community members into the larger LA community.