Camp GLOW

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) is a Peace Corps sponsored girl's empowerment camp to address gender equality.  This year, we invited 66 young women selected from Secondary Schools across Malawi to attend the 10th Annual National Camp.  We also invited many strong professional Malawian women to join us, such as a Justice, a journalist, a nurse, a banker, and Malawian’s internationally renowned fashion designer, and many more.  Peace Corps has worked since 2003 with Malawian partners to organize this annual event. 

Camp GLOW supports young women as they endeavor to take charge of their futures, their choices, their bodies, and their heritage. We help them through a variety of activities to develop assertiveness, set goals, and plan their future careers and lives. 

In true African fashion we used Call and Response at different parts of everyday to weave in themes to what we were learning. 

Let’s try it…

Call: I am the author of my life.

Response: I am the author of my life.

Call: My body is my own.

Response: My body is my own.

Call: My dreams can come true.

Response: My dreams can come true.

Call: My voice is unique.

Response: My voice is unique.

Call: The world is better because I am here.

Response: The world is better because I am here

and I GLOW. 

I am the author of my own life…I am the author of my life.

 We discussed candidly at Camp GLOW the reality that we cannot always control the lot in life we are given but we can control our response.  Our response is important.  Our response is our way to change our lives and the lives of others. The plot of our life and the characters in it might be beyond our control but as the main character and the author we all have the power of choice.  And where choice does not exist we must create choices.  The plot for young women in Malawi may include the following themes: early marriage, pregnancy, high chance of contracting STIs (including HIV), risk of child trafficking, and other poverty increased conditions.  All of these issues impact the grim statistics of girls and the lack of education they attain. 

According to the World Bank 27% of Malawi’s girls are enrolled in secondary school, of that 13% will attend and a mere 5% will pass the MSCE (Malawi School Certificate Exam).

The story board that determines if a young female student in Malawi goes to school is determined by her ability to pay fees, commute to school (up to 5/10k) or pay boarding fees, her ability to avoid pregnancy or infection, overcome Gender Based Violence, and many other schemes.

Gender equality is important to the narrative of Malawi because gender equality is closely linked to development.  Where gender inequality exists, so does an increase in underdevelopment of communities and countries.  Increasing female attendance in secondary school by a mere 1% equals an increase of .3% in a Country’s average annual per capita income growth (Chicago Council of Global Affairs).  Gender Equality matters. 

At Camp GLOW we addressed the issues that might hinder a young woman from completing school but the key is to recognize her ability to self-advocate and make the right choices; to always make the better choice and to be the author of our own story.

My body is my own…My body is my own.

 Under this theme the focus was the importance of living a healthy life especially in regards to nutrition, female health, HIV/AIDS prevention, and Malaria prevention. A major portion of female health was learning the importance of healthy sexual choices and information on menstruation.  It is known that in Malawi a reason for poor female attendance in the classroom is lack of options of dealing with monthly menstruation.  In an effort to keep girls in school and increase school attendance, we taught them how to make their own reusable menstruation pad also known as THE PAD PROJECT.

Gender based violence exists the world over.  But in areas of poverty the likelihood increases and the resources to properly respond are dismal.  To address gender based violence we discussed what our rights are, especially the rights of our bodies.  And also what we can do to reduce Gender Based Violence in schools.  Our bodies are our own, let us own them.

My dreams can come true…My dreams can come true.

Creating a vision for our lives and creating a plan for how to achieve our dreams was alive and well at Camp GLOW.  In addition to the importance of Goal setting and learning how to budget we talked about the vital purpose of role models.  By bringing in different women that have achieved their goals serves not only as inspiration but also as a practical guide to success.  This is especially important when realizing how limited the access to knowledge is for the average Malawian. One way to increase the camper’s access to knowledge was through a trip to the US Embassy.  On this field trip each girl was given a basic computer lesson and attained an email address.  In the world today information is available but knowledge of how to access it is limited. 

At Camp GLOW we yearned to share not only knowledge and skills but also to share wisdom and truth.  To be a voice in their lives to let them know they are worth it and that our dreams can come true. 

My voice is unique…My voice is unique.

Everyone’s voice is important.  How we present ourselves is what makes our voice heard.   Through creativity, writing, song, and dance we learned the importance of self-expression.  We worked with a non-profit Voiceflame, which works to help women (especially disenfranchised women) to share their stories.  The power of storytelling can help to develop a world and a person.  We moved from exercises of writing into learning how to be an effective public speaker, to ask questions, and to find one’s own voice, a voice that is unique. 

The world is better because I am here…the world is better because I am here.

Be a leader and a change agent.  At Camp GLOW we discussed the importance of being a peer educator and the responsibility we all have to take care of the other.  One of our guest speakers, Justice Mwale, taught us, what became our daily mantra, to lift as you climb.  As a leader our role is to help others not only accomplish our own goals.  To dream of a better Malawi not merely a better me…to dream of a better world not only a better we. To lift as we climb.  So the world is truly a better place because we are here.

 I GLOW!

Life after glow includes Club GLOW.  The importance of taking the knowledge, learned at GLOW, home and shared to communities throughout Malawi.  We developed a how to start a club guide to aid in the transition home, the importance of peer education, and the commitment to development. 

We are also excited about the internships that evolved from the camp.  Two campers were selected to intern at the Peace Corps Headquarters and one camper was selected to receive a scholarship and be an apprentice with Lilly Alfonso (Malawian fashion designer).  We hope to continue to develop opportunities for those in attendance at Camp GLOW.  We GLOW. 

Gender equality can be addressed in many ways.  At Camp GLOW our focus was empowerment.  If we develop ourselves we can develop our communities, our countries, and our world.  The camp may only have been one week long, however, hope lasts a lifetime.  Our hope was to speak truth and wisdom into the young women that can change Malawi.  And as one of the characters at Camp GLOW I have a new commitment to Lift as I climb.