For a long time, Nadia, a stay-at-home mom in Nashua, thought of her apartment like her cocoon. Each morning, she woke up at 4 a.m. to study the Bible and prepare her husband’s lunch. Her family and faith were her main focus. Her home, adorned with butterfly stickers, was one of the few places she felt comfortable. “Sometimes we think, as immigrants, we don’t have the right to acquire certain things, or we don’t have the right to say certain things,” she said.
When Nadia did venture out, it was usually to the local Pentecostal church — where she met her friend, Sadier. The women, whose last names we’re not using to protect their privacy, soon realized they had a lot in common. As immigrants, they both bound themselves to an invisible life in New Hampshire. “I thought I didn’t have the right to talk, and my voice didn’t have any value,” Sadier said.
But that’s changing, thanks to a new course they are taking with the Granite State Organizing Project. Called “Creando Líderes para la Comunidad,” or “Creating Leaders for the Community,” this ten-week program is designed to help Latino immigrants in southern New Hampshire build connections and change their communities for the better.
