The first week of July John and I helped facilitate a week long Girls Leadership Workshop at a secondary school 10 km from our school. We had 5 secondary students and 10 elementary students participate in a variety of activities and lessons. These included: lessons on adolescence, What is Love?, early pregnancy, HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention, assertiveness and negotiating with boys, food preservation( papaya, apple and pear jam making), nutrition and permaculture gardens, computer skills, Banana tree art card making, and group initiative games for confidence and collaboration.
We had two guest speakers from the area. One was a 26 year old women who had gotten pregnant while in school, telling her personal story, consequences and how she has managed to go back to school at this age. The other was a woman living with HIV/AIDS. The third day we had a panel of all the teachers participating from the four schools (men and women) and the guest speakers. The students had over 25 questions in a question box from all the sessions that the panel addressed. It was a very rich time together. After answering the first set, the students asked us all to leave and compiled another group of questions for us!
This Saturday, we are having a 1 day workshop by popular request after the week workshop. There will be more people from our community who are living with HIV/AIDS, many of the same students bringing their friends, and more teachers that want to learn jam making and permaculture techniques. This time we will make orange marmalade because this is ORANGE SEASON! I will be teaching composting and planting a nutritious "guild" in an opportunistic area where the water naturally runs off the roof or from the water spigot. Our guild will be a papaya tree, lemon grass for tea, and matembele (a dark green plant rich in iron and other vitamins).
We had two guest speakers from the area. One was a 26 year old women who had gotten pregnant while in school, telling her personal story, consequences and how she has managed to go back to school at this age. The other was a woman living with HIV/AIDS. The third day we had a panel of all the teachers participating from the four schools (men and women) and the guest speakers. The students had over 25 questions in a question box from all the sessions that the panel addressed. It was a very rich time together. After answering the first set, the students asked us all to leave and compiled another group of questions for us!
This Saturday, we are having a 1 day workshop by popular request after the week workshop. There will be more people from our community who are living with HIV/AIDS, many of the same students bringing their friends, and more teachers that want to learn jam making and permaculture techniques. This time we will make orange marmalade because this is ORANGE SEASON! I will be teaching composting and planting a nutritious "guild" in an opportunistic area where the water naturally runs off the roof or from the water spigot. Our guild will be a papaya tree, lemon grass for tea, and matembele (a dark green plant rich in iron and other vitamins).
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