Thursday, July 14, 2011

Summer Serve and Learn 2011: Girls' Empowerment


At first, at best, people hardly notice a leader...
When the work is done, end gained, everyone will say:
We did it by ourselves, naturally.

GHEI’s Girls' Empowerment camp has now completed their first week with the volunteers from USA here to support: Krista Nickerson, Crystal Harmon, Astrid Prudent, Omalayo  Adebayo , and Naomi Riley.

In one of the sessions, the girls took part in a project to look objectively at aspects of leadership, and see how they were already demonstrating those aspects.  In their own lives, there were already leaders, even if they didn’t know it.  It was tough getting the girls to engage with the concept, but after some careful work by the volunteers, they got it. 

“I’m absolutely impressed with all the girls, because they are all absolutely brilliant! Working with them individually, though, when they are in their little groups, you can see how the quiet ones in the big groups become strong leaders in the small groups,” Astrid told me later.

Below are those aspects of a leader that the girls came up with:

Lead By Example:  I lead by example when I am a friend to everyone.  - Charlotte
Encourage Others: I am [an] encouragement, when I tell something good to my friends. -Rose
Be Organized:  I am organized when I am in school. I put all my books in my school bag so that it will not be destroyed! - Jennifer
Be Honest:  I’m honest at church when I am counting the money for my [youth group]. – Jennifer B
Be a Good Listener: I am good listener when my friend tells me something important. - Paulina
Have a Goal: My goal is to become a medical doctor.  And I want to become a doctor, because I want to heal people from their sickness in Ghana and even the whole world.  -Gloria
Be a Team Player: Being a team player is when you help someone and someone helps you. I help my mother to sweep the compound. -Ernestina
Be a Good Speaker: A good leader has to say the truth [to friends] so that it will not create any problems among themselves. -Faustina
Be Confident: I have to work hard, and when I am confident I can do so many things. – Evelyn

From my point of view, life in Humjibre is led by women.  If you go to a market, women are doing the brunt of the selling, buying and driving the economy.  If you go to a house, its women that are keeping the family secure. Women lead in so many ways here, and it’s a shame they aren’t recognized and commended for it.

Though maybe, as the Tao Te Ching says, women are such effective leaders in this community that they aren’t singled out and pointed to as such.  Perhaps, but then, where can these women be appreciated as the leaders they are? At GHEI’s Girls' Empowerment camp, several young women saw themselves as leaders, perhaps for the first time, and celebrated it. 

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