Community Voices for Health

This post is by Tina Cardoso, Executive Director, Cape Verdean Women United

On Saturday, March 18th, Cape Verdean Women United hosted our first annual women’s conference in honor of Women’s history month. The event featured several panelists highlighting important issues that affect women in our community and interactive workshops.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell opened up our conference with a special video highlighting the importance of events like these in our communities and we had the honor of having State Senator Liz Miranda join us for closing remarks!

Topics ranged from Healthy Relationships, Mental Health, and Spirituality, to Reproductive, Pelvic, Vaginal, and Sexual Health. Workshops focused on mindfulness and self-care.

Our guest speakers and workshop facilitators were professionals from Brockton and surrounding towns and included Attorney Rahsaan Hall, former candidate for Plymouth County DA, and his lovely wife Trinette Hall, LICSW and Community Clinical Coordinator at Old Colony YMCA. Rahsaan and Trinette presented on Healthy Relationships and role-played healthy communication within a marriage.

Vedna Heywood, a Registered Nurse and candidate for select board in the town of Plymouth, presented the important role women play and the future of women in politics.

Marline Amedee, Licensed Social Worker and President of Haitian Community Partners, discussed women’s reproductive rights and the need for everyone to fight to protect these rights.

Dr. Sandra Garcon LICSW and VP of programming at CVWU, helped us to understand the importance of caring for our mental health with a focus on spirituality.

Dr. Tanvi Maharaja, a Physical Therapist specializing in Pelvic Health at Signature Health, presented on Pelvic Health, providing much-needed information to our guests on caring for their pelvic, bowel, and bladder health.

And finally, my lovely daughter Dr. Serena Cardoso, LMHC, helped us with mindfulness, meditation, and self-care activities that everyone enjoyed!

CVWU hopes to continue to host these culturally appropriate educational events in our community and looks forward to another successful women’s conference next year!