ALMAS is an all Latina girls group started in Gresham High School in Gresham, Oregon. ALMAS is a group where members, mentor one another, morally support each another, strive for high education, encourage one another to finish high school and go on to college and learn about our cultural identity. We decided to start the ALMAS program because we saw a drastic rise in the number of dropouts; we also saw the numbers of teen pregnancies rise.
The ALMAS program was also set up to give Latinas a kind of safe haven from their regular life. ALMAS gives the Latina population, a place where they can talk about certain issues happening around their school. For example the uncomfortable feeling they would get when talking about immigration issues in a class full of predominantly white students.
It's important to be aware of both our own culture and the culture of others. ALMAS hopes to teach cultural awareness by regularly reading poems, literature, and watching movies about our own Latino culture and those around us. It's important to remember where we came from so that we can shape our future.
Since I am one of the founding mothers it is my job to help plan activities and help mentor these girls! SO I need your support! Let me know if you have any activities we could participate in. Thanks!
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Hi Rosy Girl,
It is amazing work that you are doing with ALMAS. It sounds like a great program.
Here in Denver, CO we are doing a program that is similar to ALMAS. It is called Latinas of Vision. It's a gender-specific culturally proficient after-school program addressing sexuality education, political education, and leadership development.
A very effective activity that the young womyn have participated in is creating and implementing their own campaign at school. They had decided on the issue that they wanted to address and how they were going to educate their peers. The participants actually came up with a Sexuality Jeopardy Game during Nat'l Condom Day, Feb. 14.
The results were phenomenal, they passed their original goal of reaching 20 peers and served over 100 students.
Having the young womyn lead in the campaign is vital to their empowerment, leadership skills, and sense of fulfillment.
Please let me know how ALMAS continues throughout time.
I look forward to reading your future blogs and I encourage you continue this conversation.
http://progressiveu.org/blog/mad-mimi
En Cambio y Comunidad
Muxerista Madrid
Well we actually started about a year ago and we have grown from 5 members to about 15. We went from being unknown to the whole city knowing about our work. I am very proud of all that we have been able to achieve. This Friday we are actually going to a middle school and talking about high school expectaions, so I'm looking forward to it!!<3. Well I also want to ere more about Latinas of Vision!!
ROSYgirl
Please feel free to check out y blog!
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/rosygirl
feel free to leave comments!