Helen's initial reflections

I thought it would be good to reflect here on the GWF and to consider the learning, as well as how to take it forward.  I am now back home in the UK.  After an extremely intensive conference programme, it is strange to be back, trying to find ways to articulate what was a life-changing experience.  Those of you who know me will know that I don't like clichés like 'life-changing', but it really was.  Let me try and explain...  

To meet Girl Scouts and Girl Guides from all over the world is itself, fascinating.  To be able to strike up conversations with absolutely anyone at the conference, purely because we had Guiding or Girl Scouting in common, is hard to describe.  From the moment we arrived at O'Hare airport and met several of the international delegations, I knew this was going to be an engaging and unique experience.  We sat with the delegation from Burundi as we travelled to downtown Chicago.  The freeway is either side of the trainline.  They don't have trains in Burundi, and they certainly don't have skyscrapers.  Even travelling from the airport to the hotel was an extraordinary international experience. 

<>

 

The train between the lanes of the freeway

On arrival, the magnitude of the event started to dawn, as we were ushered between different rooms collecting information, t-shirts, a water-bottle and all sorts of other goodies for the event.  We were also issued with translation equipment.

There then followed an intensive programme, separate for delegates and chaperones.  The girls' programme consisted of a series of practical workshops, talks, interactive discussions about the three MDGs we were focussing on.  The chaperone programme looked at how we as chaperones can support the girls with delivering their Take Action projects when they get home.  Once the delegates had worked out an action plan for their project, there was a session run by Zeenat Rahman, who is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues at U.S. Department of State.  The delegations had the opportunity to tell everyone about their plan, and to ask Zeenat to advise on how to take the project forward. 

Amy and Issi outline their project to Zeenat Rahman and the other delegations.

It was made clear to me how important it is that the delegates themselves deliver the project, with support from their chaperone. The whole purpose of the GWF was to enable girls who have been put forward by their Council or MO, to put together their own action plan. In one of the Chaperone sessions, we were asked to affirm our commitment to supporting the delegates, then all of these pledges became leaves on a tree:

My pledge

The pledges became leaves on a tree

So what happens now? The delegates have written an action plan, and we are soon talking to think about how to take it forward. Nothing is set in stone as yet, but more will follow. You can read the delegates' blog posts about their plans, that's for them to explain. I've learnt a lot about how important it is to take a step back, to allow the girls themselves to take charge of the plan. The whole purpose of the GWF was to empower the young delegates to deliver their projects, after training them in how to do so, and our programme was very much 'how to support' the delivery of this. It was an extremely useful programme for me, which I will put into action in various areas.

Guiding and Girl Scouting provide a unique opportunity for girls and young women to engage with these global issues, in a way that other activities do not. Please keep reading our blog because we will be using it to tell you about the girls' project, currently called 'Living a Political Life'.
Thanks to you for reading this. It was lovely and encouraging to receive comments, e-mails and texts from people.

If you are in Guiding, I hope it has conveyed the importance of the international side of Guiding, which should be delivered in every programme - Rainbows, Brownies, Guides, Senior Section; it is crucial that our members realise what they are part of, and how as individuals and in groups, they can work together to bring about change. Members have 10 million sisters around the world - Guiding is most definitely not just another evening activity! It is part of something huge.

If you are not in Guiding, maybe this has inspired you to think about becoming involved. We have giant waiting-to-join lists across the country, of girls who would like to join units. There are all sorts of opportunities for adults to get involved, to fit around your existing commitments. Come on - help to change the world! Look here for more details. Maybe you have been reading this without realising how huge Guiding is, and how powerful the Guiding and Girl Scouting family can be when it gathers together to learn. Imagine what is going to happen now that delegations from 89 countries have got together, shared ideas, written action plans, and have now returned to their Member Organisations!
I'll leave it there today. Am off to unpack and pick up the different strands of life. Thanks again for reading this, and please do keep reading as the project evolves. Best wishes, Helen BB

Reflecting... Issi's Post

Hi Everyone,

We thought that it would be great if we did a 'reflecting' blog just so that you can all understand how each of us have personally travelled through the emotional rollercoaster of this magnificent trip...

When I first arrived at Chicago's O'hare Airport I think we were all stunned by the level of security we had to go through in order to enter the country - it made you feel like you were smugling drugs even though you hadn't done anything! Yet once we got through, all our worries, especially Helen's, subsided. We then met the girls from Burundi and Ivory Coast who spoke french and as Amy and Helen speak french fluently I just listened and laughed at them trying to decode the girls' rocket speed way of talking.

After waiting a while for the coach we finally arrived at the hotel. The organisation was absolutely fabulous! You were wisked from one station to another for forms you hadn't filled out (Helen!) or simply t-shirts to collect. However, what simply made me feel so welcome in Chicago was the Opening Ceremony. Each of us have commented about it in our previous blogs but it was simply amazing!

I then had spectacular Toolkit Sessions in the days to follow as well as eye opening talks on topics such as self-esteem, living a political life and poverty. The Toolkit Sessions included our facilitators providing us with the knowledge and resources to complete successful Take Action plans that would have a sincere impact upon our communities back at home.

I made friends from all around the world at the Forum and friends that I will keep for life. Moreover, just being able to walk over to anyone at the Forum and strike up a conversation was a really big confidence booster for me because it made me realise that if I can do this with these girls then surely I can do it with anyone else.

Finally, the Forum has been so ispiring, I feel like I can return home and conquer the world. There is no problem or issue too large that we cannot overcome if we all join forces and work together.  So I am going to end on my favourite quote of all time and one in which I believe sums up the Forum extremely well; "Be the change you want to see in the world." - Gandhi.

Yours, Issi.

Our Take Action Plan by Issi

Hi everyone,

Just arrived at the Crea's household after an upsetting farewell to all of the international delegates. I realised that all was not that bad after all as we are all returning home to put our plans into action. We had an amazing closing ceremony and party - I will put pictures up on facebook when I return home... I go by "Issi Mahoney" - I'm the only one so I'm pretty easy to find if you want to add me. However, what I really want to let you all know about is our Take Action task that we have planned to do. We were given a  "Women in Politics" seminar whilst at the Forum which opened our eyes to the ridiculously low percentage of women in Politics within the UK - only 22% of the seats in parliament are held by women!!!!!

So we want to do something about it... We have planned a 'Living a Political Life' badge which will promote girlguide members doing the badge to understand the lack of female empowerment in the UK (MDG3) and to do something about it to change the statistics. The badge will have seven different stages that will include activities such as reading the newspaper each day and attending a civic and political event (this could be done as a unit). Though these activities may not sound all that inspiring and fun for the younger generation, we believe that it will be the way each task is conveyed and presented to the girls that will shape and form how they view themselves in society and what they can achieve as a woman - after all, Girl Guiding is here to empower girls!

I hope you like our idea, we have not finalised anything yet so there is still a long way to go but like Dr. Tererai Trent said to us at our closing ceremony; "If you desire those things, it is achieveable!"

Yours, Issi :)

Chicago Scavanger Hunt

What better way to explore the sites of Chicago than running around its streets on a scavanger hunt with loads of my new friends from Francaphone Africa?  I dropped French after taking it at AS level a year ago, but with the speed at which these girls talk it wasn't long before it came back to me. 

I didn't really take an active part in planning the route for the hunt because, typically, I was talking too much!  But I learned so much about the political and educational systems of their countries as well as finding out that they knew much of the music that I'd listened to while I was in Ghana last summer.  These girls have a totally different energy from my friends back home, and as we walked the streets of Chicago, taking in how beautifully lit up it was at night, we sang and danced and posed for pictures - much to the amusement of the locals.  Every time we walked past another group on the scavenger hunt we cheered like mad!  I also loved showing a girl from Madagascar who wanted to go into photography how to use my camera and seeing her delight at the pictures she could take with it, as well as a girl from Burundi telling me that she liked to be in pictures, not take them!

 
By the end of the night, I was half thinking in French, but more importantly I had become very inspired by the stories they had told me of female empowerment in politics in their countries.  It seemed to put the United Kingdom to shame, which got me thinking about my action plan....

International Night

We have had two grilling days discussing the causes of and possible solutions to gender inequality and unsustainability which have provided me with so many ideas for what I could do for my  Take Action project that I don't know where to start!  But after our packed schedules, the planning team have put together some amazing social activities for us in the evening to let off steam and have fun with our new friends.
On Saturday we had International night, where everone set out a table which reprsented their country and wore traditional dress.  On our United Kingdom we had Union Jacks, red double decker buses, shortbread, Olympics posters, photos of our lives in England and objects which represented the Beatles, Harry Potter and Doctor Who.  We were a bit stuck as to what to wear for traditional British dress, but we ended up going 'Ascot style' - fascinators and all!  As I have had happen to me all week, people were constantly coming up and squealing over our 'cute British accents'!  When I get home I'll miss people automatically liking me because I'm British.

Seeing everyone else in their traditional dress was amazing too and it made me jealous that we don't have such interesting traditions.  We had great fun posing for pictures with each other and explainging why we were wearing what we were wearing. 

While this was all going on, we were treated to some amazing dancing and singing from delegates from all around the world, and most of the audience joined in by clapping and cheering and dancing along. 

As the Korean chaparone pointed out to me, this kind of show is priceless - nowhere else would you get to authentically experience so many different cultures in the space of a few hours. 

I managed to get up the courage to perform one of my own songs (because I'm English, so that makes it English!), which I think looked a little bland next to everyone else's performances, but I was happy to find that it got an amazing reception.  Another unique experience was doing the Cha Cha slide with the Africans, many of whom had  never heard it before, but could still perform it better than I ever could!
I returned to my bed that night exhausted, and wondering how I was ever going to say goodbye to all these people - good thing we all have Facebook to keep in touch!

Chaperone programme today - 2 of the sessions

We Chaperones attended four sessions today, whilst  the delegates were having their programme. 

The first session was called Mentoring Girls for Healthy Self-Esteem and we explored the factors which contribute to low self-esteem amongst girls and also amongst leaders.  We thought about strategies which we can use when mentoring, to ensure that it is a positive experience for all concerned.  We talked about the qualities a mentor should have, relating this to our own experiences of mentoring.

Later I had a fascinating session on Partnering With The Community.  I was in a group with Lisa, the Deputy Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago, and Evita, the Deputy Trainer for Liberia.

We talked about the benefits and challenges of working in partnership with other organisations.  The benefits include raising awareness of the organisation and increasing visibility locally; giving credibility to an organisation; shifting the girls out of their 'comfort zone' by challenging them  and encouraging them  to try new things; in the US, Girl Scouts is a 'brand' and engagement brings credibility to this brand. The idea of Girl Scouting and Guiding as a 'brand' was not something which everyone in the room was familiar with,  which made for an interesting discussion.

In terms of the challenges, we talked about diverging expectations; the importance of defining roles, the importance of liasing with the right person in the organisation; as  well as remembering at all times the purpose of  the activity.   Perhaps it is counting towards a community-based piece of service, in which case the aims must be closely monitored. 

There is often scope for more partnership work if a partnership is successful, for example, there may  be a longer term relationship which can be developed over many years. 

It was interesting to hear about community partnership projects in Trinidad and Liberia,  and to learn about how the Girl Guides there instigated the projects.  Great discussions. 

International conversation - Liberia,  UK, Trinidad and Tobago

Benefits and challenges of community work



Return to Brookfield Zoo

Attendees at the GWF visited local community projects today.  I went back to Brookfield Zoo where we helped to plant some vegetation.  I was delighted to meet Hazel, the International Commissioner for Zambia, as Girlguiding LaSER currently has a team there working with Book Bus, and Hazel has been liaising with them and will be meeting them in Zambia next week.  As the song says, it's a small small world.

The Zambia delegation, including Hazel the International Commissioner, with Helen BB

Planting trees together