After the first meeting for the Venos Girls Clubs in Erbil, Iraq, most of the young women now have the spirit to be leaders and to make change.

I asked them, "What is the thing that made you happy last week?" , and all of them responded that participating in the Venos Girls Club is the most important thing that makes them happy. They think about their Girls Club all week until their next meeting arrives.

When they were asked about what they benefited from since the first Girls Club meeting, this is what the young women had to say:

Arazo: When I told you about my story, I felt happy for the first time because you shared my story. This pushed me more and more to be active and make a change in my life. Even when my family saw that I started to think in a different way , they encouraged me to attend these workshops till the end, and they also encouraged my sister to participate in this program.

Aisha: I told my colleague in the hospital about this important workshop, and we started to make a group to help keep the hospital clean. Now the girls there want to participate in these workshops with me!

Marwa: My family was so interested when they saw the change in the way of my thinking. After I told them the details about the program, they sent my sister with me to benefit from it.

All of the girls also established an environmental group in their school and led a cleaning campaign for the school yards and garden, and also donated different books and stories for their school library.

Renas: One of the girls in the school (not in our club group) made fun of me when she saw me cleaning the school yard, but this behavior pushed me more and more toward my goal to make my school clean and better.

The girls in the program are already becoming transformed, feeling proud to be a part of this global movement for girls. Surely, there will be more positive change to report for the next one!

- As reported by the Erbil, Iraq Girls Club Facilitator, Saadia F.Hassoon