International Women’s Day, celebrated each year on March 8, shines a light on the social, political, and economical accomplishments made by women. Throughout Maryknoll’s long history there have been so many women who have achieved great things that it would be impossible to share each of their stories in a single blog post. For today we decided to highlight Kathy Bond, a member of the Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful. Below is a piece of her story:
“[M]yself and another Lay Missioner accompany a women’s group in a land settlement area. What we strive to do is open up a space for women to come together and share their life experiences. We touch on themes such as anger, their life stories, fear, images of women. Our overall goal is that women become stronger and healthier as they learn to integrate their body, mind and spirit. When the women are stronger and healthier they are more active participants in transformation stories, whether it be individual transformation stories in their families, whether it be stories of transformation in their communities. For us, when women are strong and healthy and live integrated lives, they’re better mothers, wives, friends and they’re better fighters in the struggle. When we strengthen women, we strengthen the fight. We continue to stress that women play an important role in all the struggles and that their voices need to be heard. We try to open up a space for them to do that.“
Kathy meets with grassroots women to help them develop a greater sense of their own worth and potential.
To learn more about Kathy’s mission work in Brazil please click here.
