GLOW Camp

I realize I've been lagging a bit on the posts- it's been over a month!

The 3 major things that happened in December (after all, the month is almost over) are GLOW (Girls Leading Our World), the new volunteer's swear in, and Christmas of course!

So, I think it's safe to say that GLOW went well. Of course it didn't all go smoothly or according to plan, but that was to be expected. The overall number of girls was about 70, and the camp lasted 5 days.

I ended up bringing 3 of my girls (from the school) to camp. It was so nice to see them having a good time and learning. The camp focused on health, sexual health, and career planning. The girls had several different games. We got creative--one of the PCVS set up "bowling" with water bottles and a small ball, darts on paper, and one even got a carpenter to make the necessary bean bags and wood frames to play bean bag toss (or "cornhole"). Every day, there were different guests to speak or throw an activity our way. Among these were theater, trust activities, a career panel, and health presentations. The girls got to sign up for different field trips around Kigali, including orphanages and computer labs. One of the more contravertial activities was teaching the girls how to put on condoms. We had model penises made of wood, donated to us by PSI along with condoms. Each girl was given one and time to practice. The youngest girls at GLOW were 15, so I personally don't feel like they were too young for this. There's such a stigma that girls with condoms are promiscuous, dirty or untrustworthy. It's going to take a long time to shake that image in Rwanda (hell- it's hard to shake that image in the U.S.), but I can see that it's an issue that is becoming more public. The "No shuga daddi" billboards are now being replaced by pictures of local celebreties advocating condoms. We also gave condoms to the girls to take home with them, if they so chose.

Below, one camper shows another camper how to put on a condom.


I was at GLOW for the majority of the time (4 of the days) and I'm really glad I got to participate in it.