Good morning,
Today’s update was written by Catherine, our Director. She recently started a Girls’ and Women’s Issues Group and will share it’s purpose and the progress we’ve seen so far.
This week we’d like to share with you progress about a group that we’ve started for our girls at the foundation. Since November, I have been meeting with the girls a couple Saturdays a month to discuss issues that girls and women experience in the Dominican Republic and all over the world. Although there are many lessons and topics to cover, they all fall under having awareness of self and the world.
It’s been fairly easy to come up with relevant topics, so the more challenging part has been figuring out how to be effective in my lessons. It isn’t the same as teaching math or English class. In order for these meetings to work, the girls need to feel like they are in a non-judgmental and open environment, and they need this not only from me, but also from their peers. We’ve had five meetings to date and have covered what it means to have healthy self-esteem, physical development of young women, and aspects of “machismo” culture and how to deal with unwanted attention from boys and men. For anyone interested, here is a link to the well-written letter we used to discuss the latest topic. Most of the content applies to girls ages 8+, but I plan on including the younger girls by spending some Saturdays engaged in more fun activities like bracelet making, dancing, and friendly competition, while reinforcing different lessons and values.
Attendance has been between 12-20 girls each time, and considering the girls make up less than 50% of the foundation and many are ages 4-7, I feel good about this number. I strongly believe that these meetings are crucial to their personal success, and I’ve been even more convinced of this since starting the meetings. A young girl craves a role model, guidance, and advice about how to manage different issues. Our girls are truly lacking guidance outside of the foundation, even to the extent that a couple girls told me they didn’t know they would have a menstrual period. It’s clear how excited they get when listening to my “experienced” advice on boys or putting forth their best effort, and each week the girls eagerly ask me if we’ll be having a meeting. Seeing the looks on their faces when we discuss different shared experiences fills my heart with joy. Their eyes are engaged, their attention focused, and their heads firmly nod as they listen to stories or ways to approach their world. The following week after having a meeting on self-esteem, one 8 year-old girl said during math class, “I love myself because I behave well in class.” It was a phrase she had used in one of our self-esteem building exercises. If this is what she took away from the meeting, I am more than satisfied.
There is still so much progress to be made. A few of the girls are so shy and insecure that it may take 5 minutes of silence and everyone else turning their gaze to get them to say something nice about themselves. One girl who has been at the foundation for 2 years is extremely negative and hardly has anything positive to say about herself or her situation. They have their normal tiffs and sometimes drama goes down. For me, these are all motivations to continue with the meetings, and I know that their attitudes will improve in time. I am incredibly proud of our girls and feel so blessed to have the opportunity to support them.
To end, I’d -hop song “1,2 Step.” Perhaps the most fun thing that’s come out of these meetings to share a video of our girls performing a dance to Ciara’s hit is starting a dance group. Dance very much reinforces self-awareness and control and gives the girls a chance to express themselves differently. A couple of our most quiet girls have really come out of their shell and shined while dancing. Here is the link to the dance.
Lastly, if anyone has experience or suggestions about content or activities for the girls’ group, please feel free to share.
We thank you all for your support. Our work wouldn’t be possible without you.
