Again, Southern Girls Conference was a phenomenal success. This girls empowerment conference focuses on HIV prevention through esteem building, role model identification, women's health and reproductive health education, and much more! It was held 21-24 June in Keetmanshoop this year, about three hours south of Mariental by bus. Girls from Rehoboth, Mariental, Tses, Keetmanshoop, Karasburg, Bethanie, and Ludertiz came together for the conference. The theme was based off of Maya Angelou's poem, "Phenomenal Woman" which the girls absolutely loved!
From the evals, the girls really enjoyed all of the informative, interactive sessions on self esteem, relationships, HIV and AIDS, women's health, reproductive health, yoga, and creative movement. Many of them, although shy in the beginning to meet other girls, noted that making new friends and communicating with girls from other girls clubs were highlights. They also said how much they liked all of the energizers, games, and songs that they learned. Megan's rendition of "Boom-chick-a-boom" was a BIG hit!
During the planning session for the future of Girls Clubs in the respective communities, the girls from the two different schools in Mariental came together. This was cool because they don't usually interact and one is known as being a "better" school than the other, so Megan and I were quite happy to see them working together. The Mariental girls want to host a one-day Mariental Girls Conference for the other girls from their schools and other schools with girls clubs in Mariental. Actually, the idea came from Megan and I, but once we shared it with them they took over, sharing which sessions were most important and should be included, volunteering to help with or lead different parts, and generating a list of "phenomenal women" in the community to invite to speak on a panel for the girls. I must say, I am quite proud of all of these girls! Of all the girls there, these were some of the most respectful and well behaved girls. I have no doubt that the Mariental Girls Conference will be phenomenal as well!!
Saturday night was a dance party with mostly Namibian dance music and they were begging for it to go on all through the night. The conference closed Sunday morning with a farewell ceremony including a final reading of "Phenomenal Woman", presentation of certificates (hot pink ones), presentation of t-shirts, and a group photo.
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