The Southern Girls Conference 2006 was a smashing success! Just over 50 girls from the communities of Rehoboth, Aranos, Mariental, Gibeon, Keetmanshoop, Karasburg, and Bethanie gathered in Mariental to grow in leadership, female empowerment, and the creation and capacity building for current Girls Clubs in their communities.
The theme for the weekend was Phenomenal Woman based on the poem by Maya Angelou. This message was woven throughout all of the sessions such as HIV/AIDS impacts on our communities, esteem building, gender and risk reducation, goal setting, and appropriate relationships. The girls also participated in cultural presentations (prepared ahead of time), role plays exploring some of the issues Namibia's school-aged youth face, an extensive women's health session, and a time of reflection and planning for Girls Clubs in their communities.
On Friday evening we invited a panel of some phenomenal women from Mariental to come and share from their life experiences with the girls. The underlying theme of this panel was "Don't look back" and each panelist shared words of wisdom and inspiration for the girls. The girls asked lots of questions in order to better understand how these new role models got to where they are now in life.
The girls took part in a closing ceremony on Sunday morning. They debriefed what they had left behind and what they will take with them from the conference. Each girl received a certificate and a t-shirt. The following comment from on of the evaluations pretty much sums up the whole Southern Girls Conference,
"I am now a phenomenal woman."
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