GIRLS CAMP!

So far during my Peace Corps service, I have worked on many community projects, but by far, my favorite has to be the 4 day Girls Camp that I just completed over the winter break. If you know me at all, you know that I love working with youth, especially teenagers. It's the population that I am most comfortable with because of my work back in the US as a social worker. So when the chance came to host a girls camp for 14 to 20 year old school girls in my village, I jumped at the opportunity. Now I didn’t do it all alone. Another volunteer, Deirdre, came to help co-facilitate the camp with me. Not to mention I had many community members supporting me during steps along the way. Deirdre is definitely my bestie here in Benin, which is interesting because we are very different people. She is a total extravert and complete brainiac which is great because I am neither of those things. Don’t get me wrong, I have amazing qualities of my own. I am organized, determined and very passionate (although some people might describe it as being feisty). This is why we make the perfect team, actually better said the “dream team”. So like I said, Deirdre and I co-facilitated the camp together, but beforehand there was lots of prep work that took place on my end. I won’t go into too much detail, but it took a little over a month to put all the pieces in place between the permission slips, organizing the food, planning all the sessions and inviting local Beninese professionals to come and speak. But overall it was a 10/10 experience. 

Now let me tell you about what we actually did during camp. Below I listed the schedule for the 4 day camp, so you can get a better idea of all the subjects we covered. Every day the camp was from 8am to 12:30pm, with a 30 min snack break at 10am. 

DAY 1

8am -10am	Intro to camp Camp rules Jeopardy  Pre-test.
10am -10:30am	Snack Break
10:30am - 12:30pm	Learning about the reproductive systems of both males and females.

DAY 2

8am -10am	Review game on yesterday's subjects The 4 phases of your menstrual cycle (bracelet activity).
10am -10:30am	Snack Break
10:30am - 12:30pm	Panel of professional women in the community (canceled) Menstrual hygiene and menstrual products (making reusable menstrual pads).

DAY 3

8am -10am	Review game on yesterday’s subjects Communication styles (passive, aggressive, assertive) Sexually Transmitted Infections (presented by community peer educators)
10am -10:30am	Snack Break
10:30am - 12:30pm	Sexual health and contraceptive methods (presented by female community educator from NGO Jeunesse Action)

DAY 4

8am -10am	Review game on yesterday’s subjects  Condom negotiation using assertive communication Boys vs girls daily schedules Identifying the difference between sex and gender
10am -10:30am	Snack Break
10:30am - 12:30pm	Self portraits (sharing who you are and what you want to become) Jeopardy  Post-test.

Throughout the camp there were many successes and many lessons learned. Some of my favorite activities were making the menstrual cycle bracelets on day 2 and creating our self portraits on day 4. We were very fortunate to have a guest speaker come and present during day 3 on sexual health. Deirdre and I could have done a great session on sexual health, but to have a strong Beninese female share this information was more impactful than what we could have done. Sadly we had to cancel the Panel of professional female community members, but it is definitely a lesson I plan on revisiting for future projects.

Overall the girls were amazing participants. We laughed, danced and learned a lot, but before I leave you, I almost forgot to mention my absolute favorite thing that we did during camp. Every day we started off and ended the day with a mantra of affirmations that one of the other volunteers came up with. 

Je suis belle (I am beautiful)

Je suis forte (I am strong)

Je suis intelligente (I am intelligent)

Je suis independante (I am independent)

Je merite le respect (I deserve respect

If the girls remember anything from this camp, I hope that they remember that they are all of these things and so much more. That they deserve so much in life, and no one should ever tear them down or tell them they can’t. The future is FEMALE, and the future of Benin is these girls!