Portugal.
Counselor

Filomena Carvalho, Woman of Compassion

In 1981, Filomena Carvalho joined the staff of the Immigrant Women's Health Centre as the Portuguese counsellor. The centre serves Toronto's immigrant and refugee women in fourteen languages and provides clinical services and multilingual educational material on sexual and reproductive health. Filomena's leadership at the IWHC helped establish the Mobile Health Unit, a fully outfitted clinic in a van that travels to factories and workplaces all over Toronto. She has also taught English as a Second Language in factories such as adidas, S.R. Grant, Maple Lodge Farms Ltd. and Omega through the Toronto Labour Council. In 2003, Filomena won the City of Toronto’s Constance E. Hamilton Award on the Status of Women and the Marion Powell Award.