Camp GLOW

GLOW stands for Girls Leading Our World and is a Peace Corps run program around the world. We as volunteers put together a weeklong camp for 2 girls from each of our villages and then invite one female teacher to attend as well. In Peace Corps Zambia we have these camps run in each province and because northern province is so big we have 3 different camps based on district (e.g. Mpika, Mbala, and Kasama).

From 5 December to 9 December we had our Kasama Camp GLOW at a facility about 10km outside of Kasama town. We had 8 Peace Corps Volunteers, 16 girls aged 13-19, 7 teachers, and 3 Zambian counterparts from Planned Parenthood Association of Zambia (PPAZ). Throughout the week we had sessions lead by our counterparts from PPAZ on topics like confidence and motivation, assertiveness, sugar daddies, peer pressure and boyfriends. These sessions provided skills for the girls to take back to the village so that they can empower other girls and women in their communities. We also had arts and crafts time where the girls made things like tye-dye t shirts, decorating journals, and making washable menstrual pads using local citenge fabric and towels. Then we also had a time for sports where we did activities like bowling using empty plastic bottles, knock out, and a relay race. At the end of the week the teams were awarded homemade medals for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place as well as a team spirit award.

Another thing that my district did was assign 4 girls to 2 Peace Corps Volunteers in prides. We had 4 different prides (orange, green, yellow, and purple) and we met as a pride each day during tea break to discuss more about the sessions, answer questions, and just build a small family during the camp with other girls that aren’t from your village. We chose to name them prides for two different reasons. One was to teach the girls about what it means to be proud of yourself and the other because lions live in a group called a pride and in that pride they take care of one another and we hoped that over the week each pride of girls would look out for one another. These prides also competed against each other in sports throughout the week.

I was with the green pride. We named ourselves the green giants and had a great time during the week. I am proud to report that my green giants dominated in sports and therefore took 1st place and walked away with the gold medal for the week! It was so much fun cheering on my girls Mercy, Deophister, Lydia, and Sheila as they competed. I felt like such a proud mom 

Now when in January once the schools open again I hope to work with my two girls I brought, Alice and Auxilla, and the teacher to start a girls club that will meet once weekly and do the same things that we did at camp.

Here’s to hoping that it goes as well as the club!