Friday, October 28, 2011

bariloche.


Misión María Magdalena (MMM), one of my placement sites this year, is a church community consisting primarily of women and their children. Because of this, an important part of the church's work is promotion of women’s health and safety. To support this work, each year the church sends a group of women to the National Women's Gathering. A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to accompany the women as they traveled to Bariloche for this year’s gathering. We also had the chance to visit the local Lutheran church and the local YAGM volunteer, Emily! What a wonderful blessing to have some time to sit with her and talk about our experiences here in Argentina so far (and get in a couple of episodes of 30 Rock).

The National Women’s Gathering is a coming together of thousands of women from across Argentina who participate in workshops (really more like discussion groups) on a variety of subjects related to women in society. During the last session of each discussion group, a conclusion statement is written. These conclusions are read to the entire group of women on the final morning, and then all of the statements are used by the event’s organizers as a basis for their advocacy work and policy promotion during the coming year. The women of MMM attended a workshop on reproductive rights, and were recognized in their group’s final statement as positive examples of church action in social issues. This was an important moment for these women as they reflect on their work over the past years and prepare for the upcoming changes in leadership and structure at MMM (I’ll talk more about this as time goes on).

We were also able to fit in a few days of sightseeing, both in Bariloche and in El Bulson, two hours south. Below are some pictures from the week. 






All my love.