Service Learning Log

1. Activism: This week I got my assignment for the Women to Women Conference from Jenn Hollern, the Service Learning Coordinator for this conference. Heather, Gumbs, Athia and I will be coordinating some childcare activities for the children whose mothers are attending the conference, such as board games, crafts, and maybe some easy outside athletic games. I am also going to get together some donations for the conference. I am also looking forward to hopefully (if I can get off work) going to work in the community garden in Fellsmere with the group on April 3rd.
2. Reflection: This week in class we’ve talked a lot about women workers in the global market, we’ve also talked a lot about how women organize globally to solve issues. Jennifer Bickham Mendez says in her article Creating Alternatives from a Gender Perspective, that creating and taking advantage of a globalized political space through localized grassroots initiatives, the collective practices of women maquila workers’ movements have blown apart a simple notion of a global/local duality (Naples & Desai p.125). Obviously we aren’t working with maquila workers but they have a lot in common with migrant farmworkers in terms of being taken advantage of in the global marketplace. Its localized grassroots initiatives like the The Farmworker Association of Florida that are helping these women organize together and learn their rights. There was also a quote in this article that I thought was interesting, it’s from Mary Tong, the director of the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers; she said, “Solidarity among workers should cross the border as easily as companies move production” (Naples & Desai p. 125). This quote can be helpful to everyone not just Maquiladora workers, if even the most diverse group has solidarity among it, they can come together to do great things.
3. Reciprocity: Since the Women to Women Conference isn’t till March 26th and the Fellsmere trip isn’t till April, I feel like I haven’t really gotten a chance to see any of the work that I’m doing take effect yet. I am really looking forward to working with these women and everything I can learn from them and from my classmates.

Works Cited:
Desai, Nancy. A Naples & Manisha. Women's Activism and Globalization: Linking Struggles and Transnational Politics. New York: Routledge, 2002.