Among the several things I have neglected to update my dear Camb(l)o(g)dia readers on are my recent cross-country excursions with the Harpswell Girl's zines. In particular, I failed to describe the amazing experience I had working with the girls of the Martinez Street Women's Center, a great little storefront service org in San Antonio, TX. Check their mission statement:
The Martinez Street Women's Center is committed to developing a community space that provides information and services which support the active participation of women and girls in the pursuit of their own physical, emotional, and social well-being. The goal of the Martinez Steet Women's Center is to serve as a resource center providing education, referrals, advocacy, and health outreach to women, their partners, and their families. Our target population is women and girls who face barriers accessing health care.
And their organization description:
We currently have two main programs: Girl World and the Promotoras. Girl World is an after-school and summer program for girls ages 10 to 14. In this program, we work to nurture the growth and development of girls through a comprehensive approach that focuses on communication, creativity, self-esteem, healthy sexuality, leadership, and building positive relationships. The Promotoras are a group of trained local women who are mobilized to spread grassroots health information programs to the southeastern San Antonio community. We also have a nutrition class for minority women, a lending library, and a referral service.
So, my friend DeAnne Cuellar brought me down to her town (she's affiliated with both the awesome Texas MEP and the kind of amazing Local 782) and set me up to do a zine workshop with approximately 15 girls, some of whom were uncomfortable in English, some of whom were just uncomfortable because they were girls, but all of whom were thrilled to be reading and responding to the Cambodian girl's zines.
Possibly the best part of teaching this particular group of young people—really smart media critics already—was that they were curious and knowledgeable about Cambodia. How do they eat? The girls would ask. What do their houses look like?
And luckily, the Harpswell girls had already created zines that explained these things.
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