By Mercedes Vivero and Daniela Londoño
Change Makers Programme
The Change Makers programme got started in 2017 as a way to bring women together and create a space for collective healing and learning. It’s been a way for women with Latin American heritage living in London to explore their own migratory journeys, build trust with each other and contribute to social justice. Likewise, the Change Makers programme has been a platform for us to keep learning how to challenge the systems that oppress us while building stronger feminist support networks and community bonds. The programme is delivered in monthly sessions, and in its seven years of existence we’ve held 174 workshops for 396 women.
We’ve adapted the Change Makers programme to incorporate a specific area of work with young Latin American girls in a school in Lambeth, where there are high proportions of Latin American students. This adaptation, called Change Maker Chavitas, has proved really useful for addressing issues relating to girls’ wellbeing and identity. We’ve also developed specific workshops and activities on VAWG prevention with the groups.
LAWA Changemakers session, November 2024
What have we been up to lately?
The adult group has an incredible Spanish-speaking cohort of Change Makers this year. Together, we’ve been creating a space for collective learning, solidarity and complicity. As a feminist political education programme, our sessions cover a range of topics, including mental health and systems of oppression, conflict resolution, anti-racism, fatphobia and more. We are also running an online book club where we read global majority women authors on topics like migration, anti-racism, black feminism, identity and women’s solidarity.
The Chavitas group is currently made up of 46 girls aged between 13 and 17. We learn about intersectionality, violence against women and girls, solidarity between women, LGBTQ+ awareness and other topics. We think this is a great space to share with new generations of girls of Latin American heritage in London, to raise awareness about preventing violence, and to imagine better futures while recognising our role in making them possible.
How to join
If you’re interested in participating in our monthly workshops or the book club, just drop us a message at [email protected]. The book club is online, so you don’t need to be in the UK to join – you can take part from anywhere!
Growing Together Programme
The Growing Together Programme was created in October 2019, to help women aged 50 and over from our communities to avoid isolation and loneliness.
In this space, previously isolated women have connected with each other, learn valuable skills to help them maintain social connections and promote independent living. The group has organically grown and kept a very active engagement of its participants (currently 71 registered members, of which 35 are active participants).
What have we been up to lately?
The Growing Together group recently finished their activity Come to Lunch with Me, in October 2024. To replace this, in November, we started a new activity, Bingo Afternoons at Castle Square, every Tuesday. Playing Bingo is a very exiting activity for the women who attend, with the purpose of being together, to chat, laugh and share their daily experiences. The group is also an opportunity to keep our traditions alive. For example, to celebrate the Dia De Los Muertos, there is a special Ecuadorian traditional snack called Colada Morada y Guagas de Pan. We share these emotional times remembering our loved ones who are not with us anymore.
We have continued working at the allotment on Wednesdays, despite the inclement weather. We still have some vegetables like beetroot growing and some herbs. Not too many people come because of the cold, but those who really love gardening do come.
Thursdays are the busiest day of the week. We have an English class at LAWA in the mornings, with our amazing new volunteer Catherine Ruiz. Catherine conducts the class how we like it, by having real days in our lives, like going to the market, to the GP, or to the pharmacy. These are normal chores we do every day, but we are now doing them talking in English. Our members are learning step by step, word by word, and it is really working for the group. In the afternoons we have our Craft session, where we are knitting hats and scarves, etc and we are now making Christmas cards. We have an announcement on the noticeboard of the building, that we are selling our items. Some of them are already sold. It is a cozy afternoon.
We have a monthly birthday party to celebrate our birthday girls of the month.
Growing Together Group making Christmas Cards – November 2024
How to join
If you are interested to join our group, please remember that you must be a Latin American woman over 50. Contact us at [email protected] or 07395115623 for more information.
Volunteers and Internship Programme
LAWA’s Volunteers programme is made up of women from the global majority who give their experience, knowledge and skills to the organisation for free, with the main goal of helping us achieve our service objectives.
The Latin American community is often marginalised in public policy decision making, and linked to this, their chances to enter the labour market successfully are curtailed, even more so if we consider further intersectional layers of marginalisation. That’s why one of the main goals of this programme is to create opportunities for women in our community to develop skills and gain work experience in the VAWG sector. We believe this is also a way to challenge the inequalities they face in the job market.
LAWA has had a volunteer programme in place for a few years now, and it’s been a great help in delivering our services and creating more capacity within the teams. It’s also been a great way for women from the Latin American community to get job opportunities at LAWA and elsewhere that they might not have been able to access otherwise. This has been done through our internship programme, which is our youngest community engagement initiative. Currently, the volunteer programme has 10 volunteers in the regular roles and 21 translator/interpreter volunteers. Likewise, last year we recruited 4 interns.
What have we been up to lately?
LAWA’s team of volunteers recently won the ‘Volunteering Team of the Year 2024’ award granted by Voluntary Action Islington. This is a great way to recognise the amazing work that all LAWA volunteers do. Their contribution is vital to the organisation, so it’s fantastic that they’ve now got this public recognition!
Volunteer group
How to join
We are a by-and-for organisation, and we’re looking for women from Latin America and other global majority communities to join our volunteer programme! We recruit volunteers twice a year (to start in January and June). If you’re interested, please go to the ‘get involved’ section in our website to download the application form and send it to [email protected] once completed.
