International Day of the Girl 2017

At this week's meeting we celebrated the International Day of the Girl (October 11th) with the WAGGGS #TeamGirl Challenge and began making plans for this year's service projects!

Team Girl Gets Rights on Their Side
The first activity we did was aimed at helping the girls understand their right to an education and differentiating between needs and wants. We printed out 3 sets of the Needs/Wants Cards (see download below) and played a relay game. The cards were placed at the far end of the room and the members of each Patrol took turns to run up and get a card and decide if it was a Need or a Want. Once all the Patrols had sorted their cards out, we talked about a few of them to see if everyone agreed. As part of this discussion we noted that the basic needs for survival are food, water and shelter, but in order to thrive, we need other things as well.

Pathway to Education
This activity introduced the girls to some of the barriers to education that girls face, as well as a number of fun challenge activities! We used a slightly modified version of the game provided in the Challenge Pack and marked out a large gameboard on the floor with painter's tape. The girls played in Patrols and used water bottles and shoes as markers and large foam dice. The Patrols took turns rolling the dice and moving their counter around the board. Depending on where they landed, they had to complete tasks - sing a song, stay silent, name 7 countries starting with the letter B, name 10 different fruits, etc. It was very interesting to see which Patrols worked best together and how the Pathfinders interacted with the Guides.

At this point in the evening we separated, the Pathfinders and Rangers went upstairs and the Guides continued in the main room.

GUIDES

Get Set to Break Barriers
Our third activity further explored barriers to education, but also challenged the girls to start thinking of ways to overcome them. We chose three of the characters and scenarios from the Challenge Pack and gave a character to each Patrol. They had to come up with the character's back story - name, family, hobbies, feelings. They were then given a scenario that described a barrier to the character's education. Each Patrol then made up and presented a skit about their character and how the barrier affected her ability to get an education.

Team Girl Speaks Out
The final activity was about making a difference, so we asked each Patrol to make a list of issues they care about and any ideas they had for service projects. We had a variety of ideas and will be choosing some of them to work on later this year!

PATHFINDERS/RANGERS

Making a Difference
Our Ranger talked about her experiences at WE Day in September (it was awesome!!) and the group worked through some of the WE Resources to come up with a list of issues they care about and potential service projects. We will be putting their plans into action over the course of the year!

Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Article 26
(1) Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the UN for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Convention on the Rights of the Child - Article 28
You have the right to a good quality education. You should be encouraged to go to school to the highest level you can.

Convention of the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women - Article 10 
Countries must end discrimination against women and girls and ensure equal rights in education. This includes equal access to education and vocational training at all levels. Women and girls must be provided with the same curricula, examinations, standards for teaching, access to scholarships, and equipment.

Downloads:

• Needs/Wants Cards
• Pathway to Education Game Board 
• #TeamGirl 2017 Challenge Pack (WAGGGS Website) 

Going Global - Service & Awareness

Our second meeting in April was spent earning the Going Global Service Bar and learning more about education and Fair Trade. We started the meeting off by filling in physical fitness logs for the week, followed by our usual opening and an active game.

The first activity was called Picture Your World and comes from the Right Now! resource book from Girlguiding UK. The Guides were divided into 3 uneven groups and given supplies to draw pictures of their favourite parts of Guiding. Group A had 2 girls, 2 sheets of paper and a box of new markers. Group B had 4 girls, 2 sheets of paper, and a mixture of markers and pencil crayons (some not working well). Group C had 10 girls, 1 small sheet of paper, and a mixture of markers and pencil crayons (most not working well). The groups could look at what the others had, but couldn't borrow items or get supplies that they weren't given. We ended the activity with a discussion where the girls shared how they felt with the supplies they received and what they observed about the other groups. We also discussed the differences in education around the world.

Our next activity was to Assemble School Kits from the supplies that were collected at Thinking Day. Supplies, including notebooks, pencils, erasers, rulers and pencil crayons will be sent to the Mennonite Central Committee for distribution around the world.  

The rest of the meeting was spent on an activity called The Trading Game, also from the Right Now! resource. In this activity, the Guides were divided up into 6 groups representing 2 wealthy countries, 2 middle countries, and 2 poor countries. Each country was given supplies to make bracelets. The wealthy countries received 3 colours of beads, string to make one bracelet, tape, ruler, scissors, and 6 bank notes; the middle countries received 1 colour of bead, a different type of bead, string to make two bracelets, tape and 4 bank notes; the poor countries received 1 colour of bead, string to make many bracelets and 2 bank notes. The countries then had to start making bracelets that met the game requirements (25cm in length, 3 different colours of beads). The Guides soon realized that they would need to trade and/or purchase supplies from each other in order to complete their bracelets and began coming up with strategies to get the supplies they needed. We ended the activity with a brief discussion about Fair Trade and how the bracelets they had made will be donated to Sangam, where they are sold for $0.20 to $0.25 in the shop to raise money to support community programs.

World Thinking Day 2014

The Caledonia Sparks, Brownies, Guides, Pathfinders and Rangers got together on Tuesday, February 18th to celebrate World Thinking Day.

The theme for World Thinking Day this year was "education opens doors for all boys and girls". 

Our evening started with the branch openings - Sparks, Brownies, and Guides. This was followed by a brief introduction to the theme and the planned program for the evening. 

Our first activity was done in branch groups, and was to make name tags showing the girl's names in Hindi and English. This was done with pre-printed labels on fun foam. The girls then decorated the name tags using peel-and-stick felt and fun foam decorations and stickers. 

We then split up into 3 mixed groups (Sparks, Brownies and Guides) to rotate through three stations.

Station 1 - Barriers to Education
At this station, the girls learned about some of the barriers to education faced by children in other countries. These included Cost (of schooling, supplies and uniforms), Distance (getting to school), Water (lack of water locally, time spent fetching water), Work (need to earn money to support family), and Being a Girl. They played a game similar to dodge ball, where the girls in the centre were the barriers to education and the other girls had to knock them out so that everyone could go to school.

Station 2 - Quality Education
At this station the girls learned that sometimes even though children go to school, the schools they go to aren't good and they don't learn even basic skills. Everyone then drew or wrote down things that make a school a good school. These were all posted on a wall display.

Station 3 - Learning for Life
At this station the girls learned about continuing their education to achieve their dreams and that many of the things they are learning now will be of use to them later in life. The girls then shared what they want to be or do when they grow up. After everyone had shared, the girls played a game from West Africa called 'Pilolo'. This game is usually played using sticks or stones (we used paper clips). All of the players cover their eyes while the game leader hides the items (one per player) around the playing area. When the game leader calls out 'pilolo', everyone hunts for an item and tries to be the first player to pick up an item and sit down.

After everyone had rotated through the stations, we took a break for cupcakes and juice. Before we started our campfire, we looked at the items that had been donated to make up school kits for the Mennonite Central Committee and everyone was thanked for their generous donations. We also had the honour of presenting Chief Commissioner's Bronze Awards to two girls (Allison & Sarah H). 

The evening ended with a campfire and branch closings.