One of Peace Corps’ world-wide initiatives is to empower girls through gender-based activities. In the DR, we have a program called Chicas Brillantes (Brilliant Girls) where volunteers form girls’ groups that do arts and crafts and sports and learn about self-esteem, standards of beauty, and women’s health. Through these activities, the program tries to instill an awareness about gender inequality and how to combat it – especially in a machista culture like the DR’s. I looked through the manual we have to help get the groups started and thought – it’s a course on feminism! So of course I have been wanting to do it. Only it’s been one of those experiences of trying and failing and trying and failing.
My latest attempt was inspired by a youth conference that Peace Corps put on for just girls. I took two girls from my sex ed group to the camp, where they learned about gender roles and how they limit girls’ and boys’ life choices, about the female reproductive system, and self-defense for women, illustrated below by one of the three male volunteers who attended the camp with girls from their community. Here, the biggest and scariest of the three pretends to be a male aggressor as the petite instructor shows how to fight him off.
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| From Girls |
These are the girls from El Limón trying out a technique used when the attacker bear hugs you from behind. You´re supposed to put your knee behind his legs and flip him over your thigh onto the ground.
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| From Girls |
Well yesterday I actually managed to have a first meeting of a potential girls group. I don’t know how far it will go, but the girls seemed to enjoy the activity and we set some ground rules and expectations. We listened to Michael Jackson as they made collages that represent them — a way to show their creativity and present themselves to the group.
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| From Girls |
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| From Girls |
Last, we talked about how we want to be as a group – what we want to do, and what norms we expect the group to follow. The girls decided they want to do arts and crafts, sports, work on their self-esteem, and do educational talks. The norms we set – like rules but instead defined among the members of the group, rather than imposed by an outside authority – include being on time (not going to happen), order, respect, and solidarity.
Before this meeting, I had kept saying that this would be my last attempt. Hopefully it will be the last because it works rather than fails! It´s pretty late in the game, but as one of my goals for Peace Corps I didn´t want to let it go. Plus, I am asking for a follow-up volunteer to come to my community, so hopefully this will be a project that someone else can continue!
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| From Girls |
