Every Sunday from 4-6pm is the Women's Group Meeting at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The C.I.W., as discussed in previous posts, is an organization comprised mainly of Latino, Mayan Indian and Haitian farm workers in Immokalee. They work to make sure that the bosses of the agricultural businesses are paying the farm workers fair wages as well as make sure that all of their rights are respected. On Sunday afternoons, women in the town are invited to participate in the women's group meetings, where they do a variety of things. This can range anywhere from doing crafts such as sewing to discussing the rights that farm workers have in the fields. The women are a source of support when they share stories of sexual discrimination and abuse, which are all too common in the town.
The C.I.W.'s ally organizations, Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida and Student/Farmworker Alliance, are responsible for providing childcare during these meetings. Because three out of the four of us work for the ally organizations and because four out of four of us have friends in the ally groups, the HM volunteers are often called upon to help out on Sundays at the Coalition. This past Sunday we planned some Halloween activities for the children. These included carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns and face painting. Siblings were grouped together and each received a pumpkin to design and carve. Some of the younger children chose to paint the pumpkins instead of cut out faces. When the face painting area was left unattended due to adults being more concerned with the safe usage of carving knives, some of the more mischievous kids took the face-decorating into their own hands. The result was truly monstrous.
While the mothers were probably not especially pleased with the mess on their kids' faces, I know that they are grateful for the two hours they get to spend at the Coalition each Sunday with one another (kid-free!)
In solidarity,
Julie
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