Happy Mother’s Day!
When asked to help, GFWC Woman’s Club of New Tampa reaches beyond borders! Read the letter returned to us after our donation was sent abroad! Way to go Ladies….
To the women of GFWC WC of New Tampa, In Salvadoran culture Mother’s Day, which takes place on the 10th of May, is one day a year when the extremely hard working mother’s, grandmothers and even great grandmothers are celebrated and appreciated. It is rare in this machismo culture to hear a “por favor” or a “gracias” directed at the woman of the house. She is expected to have the food prepared, the house kept, the cheese made, the kids under control and stay up late into the night, waiting for her husband to return from who knows where, because he will certainty want a snack or another beer. Ok, that is a somewhat jaded picture of the lives of all Salvadoran women, that is based on what I have seen in my home for the past 7 months. Just like American women, Salvadoran women’s lives all can’t be clumped together into one stereotypical group. But as a whole, I can say that, the women in San Nicolas WORK, and deserve some serious recognition on the dia de la madre. Since the work of “ama la casa” doesn’t produce material results (money) the work they do is devalued, all praise goes to the men whose work is rewarded with results (money).
So in order to celebrate the hard working women in my community, I switched up my job assignment, took a page out of the Youth Development handbook and did an arts and craft projects with the kids in the Centro Escolar. Thanks to the ladies of the GFWC Women’s Club of New Tampa for graciously funding this little endeavor, you would be surprised how far $100 goes in a Salvadoran craft store. The kids made hearts and used puffy paint and glitter glue to write sweet notes to their mama’s. This activity earned me some serious brownie points with the ladies in my community, and hopefully helped to show the kids how important their mom’s are!