First Latino “Cornerstone for Peace” workshop in Spanish Language
Editor’s Note about the author: Concha Marchitelli is a long-time WFWP member, was a professional Spanish dancer, and is currently the director of dance and drama at New Hope Academy in Maryland. She is known in her community as Momma Concha.
The Women's Federation for World Peace (WFWP) initiated a Latino Chapter on November 19, 2022!
It took over a year to manifest, starting with the vision of extending WFWP to Latino community women. This vision gained momentum when WFWP member, Monica Vallejo, caught the excitement and translated the following WFWP curriculums into Spanish: Leadership of the Heart, The Cornerstone for Happiness and The Cornerstone for Peace.
Everyone we invited attended and they brought others!
Nancy Makowski, chairwoman of the online Latino Community in the Washington DC/ Maryland area presented in Spanish the newly translated Cornerstone for Peace Curriculum, a transformational seminar from WFWP USA especially designed to help married couples find a new vision for marriage and family and start a journey to strengthen or restore true love in their own lives and relationships.
Mrs. Makowski gave three 20 minute presentations followed by questions, answers, and then group sharing. The discussion that followed enriched the content presented as attendees shared their own wisdom gained from personal experiences. The interactive workshop fostered a sense of connection and community among the 15 attendees.
The seminar ended with a “call to action,” because we want this Latino chapter to combine education with action. The call to action was to raise funds to send Christmas gifts to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic that I visited earlier in February (as a team Mom/Chaperone) with Generation Peace Academy, a service leadership program for high school graduates. The orphanage has 28 girls from babies to 18 years old. The founder started it many years ago with inspiration from the Virgin Mary. She impressed me because she leads the center with love and encouragement for the girls to go to college, get married, and form strong families. For this “call to action,” we will have a bake sale and discuss other ways to raise funds.
This first seminar was a great success, which started with a vision and produced the substantiation of the first Latino chapter for WFWP in Maryland. We are excited to be able to use this platform to empower Latino women to use their God-given feminine aspect to strengthen their marriages, educate their families, and lead in their communities.
