El Paso’s Dream Chasers Contemporary Gallery, 200 S. Santa Fe St., and Lululemon Athletic Clothing Company, 6801 N. Mesa St., celebrated International Women’s Day, March 8, with Lululemon’s “Worth 100” campaign.
A group of approximately 45 women gathered at Dream Chasers gallery to listen to the testimony of women who want to make a change in the El Paso community.
“’Worth 100′ is a campaign that Lululemon is having globally and launched today on International Women’s Day. The reason being is because of the gender equality conversation that is happening and our campaign means that any person no matter gender, race, color or who they are, everything about them is ‘Worth 100,’” said Amber Coutino, store manager at Lululemon.
The event started with a 10-minute meditation session followed by three guest speakers who shared their stories about the empowerment of women.
Among the speakers was a board member of El Paso’s Villa Maria women’s shelter, who shared the importance of women empowering women especially when it comes to women struggling to find their worth.
“Villa Maria started in 2007 and it’s part of the (El Paso Catholic) diocese and is connected to the Sacred Heart Church. We take in a lot of referrals, but we can only have 22 women, so what we do is that we take them in and they’re only allowed to stay if they have a goal in mind,” said Alexandra Chavez, vice president of the board. “We really want these women to learn how to achieve those goals and move forward. The usual time these ladies stay is 18 months and we work really hard in helping these women finding their worth because that ‘Worth 100’ that’s what our job is. Villa Maria embodies women’s empowerment, all our staff are women and it’s truly women empowering women.”
Chavez said monetary donations are welcome, but it’s the skills a person has that helps the most when volunteering at the shelter.
“I know finance, so I give financial literacy classes, maybe you like the arts and you can get free tickets for a symphony so we can take them to events, or just come and hang out with them,” Chavez said. “People just come to help them paint their nails or do their hair. Whatever you’re good at, if you want to share that with the ladies, they will appreciate it so much.”
After the speakers, the attendees were invited to enjoy the art gallery, shop merchandise and get to know the women around them.
“I thought it was really encouraging just to hear women doing great things in El Paso, I’m not from El Paso so it’s really nice to hear about the different ways you can get involved to empower women. Just to hear about the work that Villa Maria is doing made really want to look into ways that I can get involved in similar organizations,” said Alejandra Aramayo, a 27-year-old lawyer and attendee.
For more information about Villa Maria women’s shelter, visit their website at https://villamariaep.org or call (915) 544-5500.
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