The 3rd Latin American Women’s Summit will be held in Montreal in May, an event that will offer tools for the well-being of immigrants through conferences. Empowerment, solidarity, evolution. These terms are part of the philosophy of the House of Latin American Immigrant Women, a non-profit organization established three years ago in Montreal, with the aim of providing tools to women in their process of integration into Quebec and Canadian society.
To achieve its mission, La Maison de la Femme Immigrante Latino-américaine offers women emotional support, educational conferences and workshops, support in raising children, mentoring in entrepreneurship and financial education workshops, among other services.
The organization also holds an annual event in which speakers from various fields provide not only useful and timely information on the processes inherent to integration in the province of Quebec, but also a space to create links and expand networks of contacts. “A space for solidarity, empathy and mutual support,” reads the invitation to the 3rd Latin American Women’s Summit, which will take place on May 31 in Montreal.
Sandra Londoño is one of the three founders of the Casa de la Mujer Latinoamericana. An expert in the psychosocial area, the Colombian-Canadian works on a daily basis doing evaluations of parenting skills.
Londoño said that the organization was born after celebrating the 1st Latin American Immigrant Women’s Summit. “It was born from the need to unite the Latin and female immigrant community in Quebec, and thanks to that sisterhood and that listening that we maintain in our work of helping relationships, where women confide in each other and talk about their immigration process,” she said.
She explained that the women “speak of their experience, of the resilience they have shown in order to integrate into a new society, where they have everything to learn, everything to start over, where sometimes their careers are not recognized, where they encounter language barriers.”
The social worker believes that it is important that women who have already achieved full integration can create a bond with those who are in the process of making Quebec their new home.
Our goal is to be able to unite those women who have gone further, those women who have built a new home here in this country, so that they can inspire, support and lend a hand to other women who are just starting out, who are discovering and who are afraid of not being able to integrate and not being able to get ahead in this new country.
The organization’s services, such as the summit to be held in May, are aimed at women who, regardless of how long they have lived in Quebec, wish to have tools to guide them in the process of adapting to the host society, because, as Londoño explained, “chronological time does not indicate the level of integration.”
We have realized that there are women who have been in this country for 10, 15 years, and have not integrated. There are factors that influence this, such as isolation, because many women do not have a support network. There is also the language, because if they do not know French and English, they cannot connect with what surrounds them.
Added to these factors is migratory grief, that process linked to the loss that implies leaving the country of origin – or habitual residence – and that can last months or even extend for years.
“There are people who come to Canadas and have suffered so much grief that they remain tied to what they left behind. They do not allow themselves to discover the new woman, the new person that they can be in this country,” added the social worker.
A day to learn to “take care of oneself”
The 3rd Latin American Women’s Summit, which will be held at the headquarters of the Regroupement Loisir et Sport du Québec, located in the northern sector of Montreal, has as its theme “Taking care of oneself.” The choice of the central theme is a continuation of the previous summits, explained Londoño.
“The first summit we held, in 2023, was dedicated to connection. In the second we worked on self-love and now, in the third, we will dedicate it to taking care of ourselves. In other words, we already knew who we are, we understood that we are our priority. Now we are going to learn to take care of ourselves,” she added.
The summit, which will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., will include five conferences and six speakers, including a man, which will be a novelty. The topics will include everything from nutrition and general well-being to psychotherapy and leadership. The idea is to make known which are the tools that we can use on a daily basis, in an easy way and that are within everyone’s reach.
Speakers at the 3rd Latin American Women’s Summit:
Dr. Gloria López: psychotherapist, pedagogue and thanatologist
Vanessa Duarte: nutrition chemist and functional nutrition coach
Sammy Ramírez: leadership coach and writer
Gloria Rosado: Human Rights specialist
Johanna García: clinical research project manager
David Barraza Monroy: integral wellness coach, neurolinguistic programming (NLP).
It is expected that some 270 women will participate, a number higher than the 200, on average, that participated in the first editions of the event.
Gloria Rosado, one of the speakers at the summit, explained in an interview with RCI that together with Dr. Gloria López, she will be addressing the impact of personal neglect, something “that is causing havoc on mental, emotional and physical health.”
Rosado stressed that self-care has to be a priority for every woman. “It’s not selfishness, it’s about personal sustainability. Latinas have to inject ourselves with that chip of saying ‘no’ without feeling guilty. We come from a culture in which we say ‘yes’ to everything, because we feel ashamed to say no.”
We want to demystify the trends that self-care in the 21st century is only about masks and spas. Of course, that part of well-being is great, but it’s also important to exercise, whether it’s yoga, swimming, stretching, everything according to what your body allows you. And, in addition, there’s the mental part, stress management, setting digital limits, because we abuse social media. We have to prioritize cognitive rest.
To materialize the summit, the organizers have been doing their due diligence since October 2024. “It’s really extensive work and although every time we do it we end up very tired, we also have a full heart, thanks to the connections we create.”
We are talking about 200 powerful women who, with our looks, our hugs, our tears and words of encouragement, as well as the experiences we have lived, fill us with joy. We are always very satisfied with what is achieved at the summit.
