Eliza's First Day of School

We have recently partnered with the Kenya Education Fund to make it possible for this brilliant young woman with a passion for learning to attend secondary school. Eliza's first day of school was all smiles! We are smiling with her, so proud of her new journey. Eliza is the first girl in her entire region to go to secondary school. We cannot wait to hear about all the possibilities and experiences she will embark upon on this new journey!

Female Athlete to Guest at the Harlem Polo Grounds!

Did you know curling is an official sport of the Winter Olympics?

Via Wikipedia, "Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a circular target marked on the ice."

(Nina is second to the left)

It just so happens that we know a curling athlete, and she has participated in the Olympic trials in 2009! Her name is Nina Reiniger, and she's currently working with LitWorld to develop curriculum for the LitClubs we're launching with Partners in Health in the near future.

She'll be visiting our Girls Club at the Harlem Polo Grounds very soon, and we're excited to have her share her knowledge and her accomplishments to inspire the Harlem girls!

To learn more about curling, you can go here.

Things We Love.

This post was submitted by our Girls Club Facilitator in Ghana, Emefa.

Today’s meeting was centered on the strength courage.

The check-in question got girls to share some fun moments of the previous day. Girls talked about exciting play moments, chats, and moments with friends.

Courage was introduced to the girls as the strength of the day, and the big idea to do something that you know is right, though it may be difficult.

Our read aloud poem, “Honey, I Love” by Eloise Greenfield, was an interesting one for girls. They enjoyed the fun way that the poet writes this poem.

The class then went on to discuss some of the things the poet loves. Many of the girls indicted they love some of the things as the poet loves too.

Our writing activity for the day got girls to write a description of something that makes them really happy, something they truly love. Girls gave various descriptions of the things they love with illustrations to show in detail the things they love. Together the class wrote down each girl’s loved thing on a chart sheet titled “The Things We Love”.

Girls agreed that there are things they love that other people don’t love.

Girls said it is annoying to them when they love something and someone else doesn’t seem to care about it. (For this response girls were led to consider the essence of tolerating other people’s views and preferences.)

Girls also said when they love something and others also care about it, they feel like being copied and competed with. (Here girls were helped to consider the importance of sharing, co-existence and the reality of commonality.)

Girls also believe we can show our care for one another by supporting and encouraging them. Similarly, in showing we care for the things other people love, girls believe support and encouragement is key.

Even the Little Things Create Big Change

LitWorld Girls Club is engaged in activities revolving around seven strengths, i.e. compassion, sisterhood, confidence, hope, curiosity and self esteem. Through various activities modeled around these strengths, the girls are able to learn and play together in a safe environment removed from their difficult backgrounds at home. Our girls however do not simply view themselves as underprivileged victims in a tough society. They recognize that they are young leaders with the power to effect changes in the community too.

Being away from their old neighborhoods strengthens their resolve to do the little they can to make a difference where it matters most. Last Sunday, the girls took a walk around their club surroundings in a group interactive activity that enabled them to point out anything that they felt was undesirable in their environment. From illegal and low-hanging power lines to carelessly disposed garbage, murky streams of water laced with sewage and human waste dotting the alleys; the problems were many and glaring.

They also helped come up with different suggestions on how their neighborhood can be improved. They then came together and discussed on how they could bring change and find a solution to the issues they had noted. Since most of these issues mentioned were not things they could immediately solve, they decided that
change must start with them so they took up and acted on one task that all could immediately perform. This was to collect all the rubbish they could lay their hands on and dispose of it correctly.

They were excited to take up this activity and were pleased with the successful work they had accomplished. At the end of the day, all the girls celebrated the 13th birthday of one of the club’s dedicated members, Diana. Their efforts to clean up the surroundings of the school for the day were truly the icing on the cake!

Thank you Prisca, for an empowering entry. We are proud of you and your Girls Club!

The Maps of Our Hearts: Girls Club Kenya

 

The new girls in grade four and five are finished with the topic of belonging. They read the poem, My People  by Langston Hughes, discussed it, and did art work to show what the maps of our hearts look like. We had such a wonderful time getting to know how each of us belong in the society, and the relationships that bond us with the different people in our lives. - From Girls Club Facilitator Prisca

 

Thank you Prisca for sharing these wonderful photos of their heart maps!