The Religious of Mary Immaculate today, like  what Vicenta Maria had done yesterday, extends their hands to the youth of Europe, America, Asia and Africa. The youth speaks of what they carry inside, of their dreams, hopes, and problems... from their own countries we gather some of their situations.

 

Youth of Portugal, Spanish youth  and Italians...  French youth, English and many others that arrive to Europe from other different continents, look at the future horizon, they think in the woman as a person... in the midst of light and shadow, they have hopes; they see that the woman wants to open the way, fight for equal rights and to affirm its own identity, live in complimentary and reciprocity with a man.  They acknowledge that it has improved its labor situation though it still exists inequality in the treatment with respect to men, offering  more undervalued work, limitations in front of certain works and conditions by the fact of maternity.     

 

The richness of the countries and the culture that shape the American continent, the situation of the young woman is very varied generalizing common traits that form a type of a woman with whom we work and from them come to us its challenges.

 

Part of the indigenous cultural heritage is the sense of community, that the american woman may have a strong sense of union, of association, of community... supported by her own richness, could gain spaces and give  steps in her personal growth and in the participation in the community development being each time more a leader in the family and community life,  occupying   positions in the political, economic, cultural and social order. 

 

The woman in America has a profound religious sense; in the home is the mother, the educator in faith of her sons, the first catechist, suffers at the harassment of the sects and in the Church assumes her commitment to the   committed associations in the pastoral work.      

 

Asia, a mosaic of different cultures, religions and races.  Immense continent that hit before our eyes the grand contrasts and socio-economic imbalance.  Young countries that search for evangelical values of truth, justice and love in all cultures and people that can find " the seed of the Word ".

 

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While in the Philippines, the woman is appreciated for her primary mission which  characterizes being a wife and a mother, giving it a preferential and irreplaceable place in the life of the family and society.

 

 

In India, the woman is a " thing " that belongs to  ... and she sees it with simplicity and dependence always.  She lives with a mentality of subjection. The domestic workers deprived of the opportunity to study inorder to move onwards, full of dangers and experiencing the loneliness, has to go out to work at an early age to help their parents and siblings.  In the family, she has a preferential place as a light that illuminates and strength that encourages in difficulties; is responsible in important decisions in the running of the house, in the formation and in the future of the children.

 

 

A woman with thousands arms...a live image of the African woman. A multifaceted theme, a reality of contrast that frightens, pains, admires; the African woman is a heroine; she is worthy of a gaze of understanding, of gratitude and respect. Prudent and awake, responsible of herself, fights to the end in order to save her dignity and puts her intellegence at the service of the people.

The agriculture, commerce, the small orchard and small farm, sewing and others are all means in which the woman takes part in the development of her country, being the first productive source of the African states.  Anyone who has not lived in Africa cannot imagine the capacity of organizatiion an African woman has.