GLOW workshop: "How to run a youth empowerment camp"

Meet Irina and Marcela, president and vice-president of the Local Youth Council. These two young ladies are standing in the Peace Corps Volunteer lounge the morning of GLOW's workshop on "How to run a youth empowerment camp." They wanted to attend this workshop to see what new ideas they could take back to the council for this summer's upcoming leadership course. 

Dozens of other Moldovan youth and Peace Corps Volunteers came to the workshop with similar intentions. School ends next Tuesday and then summer camp season will officially commence! This year, GLOW is focusing on a local day camp model, encouraging Peace Corps Volunteers to work with local partners to hold day camps in their communities. Day camps, unlike overnight camps, do not require transportation and boarding costs that sometimes prohibit camps from actually taking place. 

At the workshop, participants learned about the logistics of running a summer camp, how to finance a camp, potential activities, instructional topics, and the wide-range of resources available from our partner organizations. The workshop was an all-day commitment and the room was stifling, but enthusiasm remained high for most of the day. As with similar events, this workshop provided time and space for ongoing experience exchange throughout the day and camp organizers learned from one another's stories.

At the workshop, I facilitated a session on local fundraising. I've delivered this session five times in the last ten months, but I think this was my last. As it turns out, one of the Moldovan camp organizers and a Peace Corps Volunteer in attendance at this session heard my talk before and were able to tell me about their local fundraising efforts since we saw each other last. That feels good!

 

When I joined the local fundraising movement two years ago, things were a little more challenging. I'll never remember the first people to come "taste" our chocolate chip cookies, say thank you, and walk away without making a donation to our cause. But now, penny wars are one of the most popular ways to raise funds in a school. Benefit discos are organized for teens, tweens, and children alike. Local fundraising might be the only grassroots movement I've ever participated in successfully.

Once again, big THANK YOU to the organizers of this workshop!

GLOW Day Seminar #1

This is Melissa, a Volunteer in a village near my town who teaches health to middle-schoolers. She invited me out to co-facilitate our first GLOW Day seminar in 2010! GLOW is a worldwide Peace Corps Initiative that stands for Girls Leading Our World. Here in the 'Dova, we've decided to not only offer the traditional one-week summer camp, but also a serious of day seminars to shed a glimpse of light on the curriculum in smaller settings.

As you can see, Melissa's village is swanky. This lake is much larger than most in Moldova, combined with a late breeze, it almost reminds one of a shoreline. Almost. It was so much fun being back in a village where everyone on the street was either one of Melissa's students, former host families, relative of her partner teacher, or neighbor.

Melissa is one of our single living Volunteers. But unlike most who live in apartments in small towns, she literally has a villa. Nice house, huge garden, sun porch, a trusty little alarm system that eats just about anything (see photo). After a great curry dinner that she cooked for us on her soba (fireplace), we got to work planning the GLOW seminar's activities. The next morning we were so glad we spent that hour doing so because we sort of forgot about daylight savings--BIG SHOUT OUT to Jen Flannery here for her text that saved us from being late to our own event!

Six girls from grades seven and eigth came to the seminar where we discussed diversity, leadership, and the correlation between health and beauty. The participants were active, eager, and incredibly fun to listen to. When one of the girls literally said, "Oh, I get it, you have to be healthy before you can be beautiful" I almost did a personal equivalent to the touchdown dance. The best Sunday morning I've spent in Moldova yet.

I also really appreciated Melissa's invitation to co-facilitate the seminar for the sake of my language development. Volunteers from different programs have different sets of technical vocabulary and I learned quite a few new things just simply listening to her. I can't wait to do more of these seminars around my district and look forward to the summer camp in August!