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2006 Peabody women who are builders of community and dreams are the |
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2005
Grace Martins was born in the
Azores in Portugal on October 21, 1962. She immigrated to
the United States at age 15 and attended Peabody Public Schools. |
Martins Senior Homecare employs many women who have immigrated to the United States and cannot find employment because of their poor language skills. Martins helps translating for the women while at the same time helping them to learn English. She was motivated to work within her community because she saw the need for these services. She said that caregivers needed someone to train them properly in physical, emotional, and spiritual ways so that it would benefit their work. Martins was the first Portuguese woman to receive the Mary Upton Ferrin Award and was the first woman in her family to receive a GED and go to college. Sadly, Martins did not have anyone to look up to in her family as a role model, but she always looked up to Mother Teresa because Martins lives by faith and Mother Teresa started a ministry of faith. Grace Martins is an influential community leader, motivator and a compassionate woman.
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| "Award to us our proper station in society; abolish all unjust laws in regard to us; withhold from us no longer our natural rights as human beings, children of one Parent, members of the same family... As husbands and son, as fathers and brothers, show to the world that you are not only manly, but humane; that you know how to pity as well as to protect; which will reflect honor, not only to your head, but to your heart, and future generations will revere your memory. All that we ask, is what justly belongs to us; we ask it not only as a favor, but as a right." - Memorial of the Female Signers of the Several Petitions of Henry A. Hardy and Others, Presented March 1, 1849 to the "Gentleman of the Senate and House of Representatives" by Mary Upton Ferrin. | ||
