We have been privileged and lucky enough to spend time with the organization Sisters4Sisters, a grassroots organization working to provide a platform for women and youth who have been victims of domestic abuse and are survivors of difficult situations. So far, we've spent four days with the Young Girlfriends program and a day with the Youth Boys program. We were charged with putting together a youth empowerment workshop. Last Wednesday we spent time with the program's leader, Eunice, to find out what her visions for the workshops were. After running a few ideas by her, we got to work planning three days of activities not knowing how many girlfriends or boys would show up and whether we would even have an impact.
We put together the following schedule/activities:
Thursday (mainly devoted to Young Girlfriends)
Icebreakers (All My Friends and Neighbors; Names; Goals for the workshop)
Vision Boards
Fitness and Wellness (dance station featuring the Wobble led by Megan and Aimee; Yoga session led by Shannon; cardio/abs/push-ups station led by Stephanie, Rebekah, and Lauren)
Lunch and Evaluation
Friday (mainly devoted to Young Girlfriends)
Icebreakers led by members of the Young Girlfriends
Nutrition presentations
My 2 Cents- an activity where particpants disagreed/agreed with certain statements on a variety of issues including peer pressure, body image, religion, and HIV/AIDS and discussed their perspectives
Lunch and Evaluation
Saturday
Icebreakers (playing soccer; name game)
Youth Boys: discussion of current issues facing males aged 13-20 including life goals, masculinity, relationships, and HIV/AIDS; vision boards
Young Girlfriends: Arts & crafts; "recess games" including hop scotch and drawing with chalk
We couldn't have asked for a better response! The most popular activity was creating vision boards. We brought a pile of magazines, markers, scissors, glue sticks, and sheets of paper so that everyone could create a board that featured words and pictures depicting how the girls and boys viewed themselves now and in the future. The Young Girlfriends and Youth Boys were open and honest with us and definitely appeared to leave more empowered. As we got into our van, there weren't enough hugs to go around.
Our hope is that the Young Girlfriends and Youth Boys are able to flourish in the future. Just today we met with a group of Young Girlfriends who are in perfect position to take over leadership once we leave. The sky is the limit, and we will be willing to help in any way we can from the U.S.
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