Mercado Mayapan needs your help! Needs 50,000 to make it through the year!
Although $50,000 seems like a lot to raise in a month, we’d like you to consider:
$50 contribution will cover one woman’s employment for a day.
$100 will pay for a day’s electricity in the Mercado
$150 will pay for computer programs and youth support in the media center
$250 will pay for a month of brokers’ fees to import goods from women’s cooperatives in Mexico
$500 will provide a paycheck for a two week payroll for one woman
$1000 will pay for a month’s worth of advertising in local media
Please make a donation today. Your gift will be multiplied several times over, both this month and in the coming year.
Women workers have dedicated their energy, time, skills and creativity to forging a future for themselves and their families. Please, in this time of giving thanks and celebrating families, help the women ensure their future, for the betterment of all the community.
Please give today. In appreciation of your support, for any donation of $50 or more, we will send a gift coupon, redeemable in 2010 at any shopping location within Mercado Mayapan. We also will include your name on a plaque in the Mercado recognizing all of the donors to this campaign as special “Friends of Mayapan” in this critical time of need.
Thank you, not only for your response to this urgent appeal, but for all the support you have provided throughout the years, on behalf of all of the La Mujer Obrera women and their families.
With best wishes,
Irma Montoya
Irma Montoya, Executive Director
P.S. Your donation is fully tax-deductible. Checks can be made out to La Mujer Obrera with the notation of “Holiday appeal”. Or you can charge your donation to your credit card. Click to download Form
UPDATE---UPDATE---UPDATE---UPDATE---UPDATE
November 2, 2009
The past month’s achievements are a testimony to the women’s perseverance, courage, vision and determination, as well as a demonstration of the community’s outpouring of support for, and embrace of, Mercado Mayapan, as truly the “community’s Mercado”.
On October 1 the women received an “Invest in the American Dream”Award from Texas Senator Eliot Shapleigh in El Paso, Texas for Wealth Creation. http://investintheamericandream.org/
The following week with funding from the Ford Foundation, LINC’s Artography project announced the inclusion of the organization and Mercado Mayapan in an elite national group of innovative organizations doing groundbreaking work on arts in a changing society. http://artsinachangingamerica.net/section/view/2009_grantees
Also that week, a delegation of 8 women from the Mercado were in Washington DC met with 18 different groups of Administration officials, Congressional leaders and national public policy/advocacy organizations, to build support and awareness for the critical model of women’s empowerment that is emerging in El Paso. Highlights of the trip include a personal meeting with Gloria Steinem, as well as, meetings with U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios and a meeting in the West Wing of the White House with Stephanie Valencia (a Las Cruces native) with the Office of Public Engagement.
A week later, the local leadership of Bank of America presented a check for a $25,000 grant in support of Mercado Mayapan. This is one of the largest corporate donations ever provided to our efforts.
The same day the organization signed a contract for federal stimulus funding from HUD in support of 36 staff positions in Mercado Mayapan.
We want to thank everyone in the community and across the country and in Mexico who have helped us reach this critical juncture for the organization. Mercado Mayapan is the community’s Mercado, created by low-income women workers, as a school, a festival marketplace, and a community building space. Please come join us any day of the week for shopping and wonderful food. And every weekend, in November we will be celebrating Morelos, the home of Emiliano Zapata. And coming in December we will be celebrating the food and culture of the posadas!!
For more information, contact us at info@mujerobrera.org. Thank you, La Mujer Obrera
Follow this link to the briefing paper the delegation circulated in Washington DC. We appreciate all of the support we have received throughout our years, and particularly in this most recent phase of our struggle. The women’s struggle for economic justice and respect for their human rights continues forward.
