Extreme Camp GLOW

This year the Pohnpei volunteers continued the Camp GLOW tradition for 8th grade girls. GLOW stands for "Girls Leading Our World," and the camp is all about women's health and empowerment. This year we did two separate camps since we had so many girls that wanted to join. Needless to say, it was a LOT of work and I'm relieved that we survived two camps! But it was also lots of fun :)

Camp 1 for the east side of the island. 

Camp 2 for the west side

We led club sessions at our schools throughout the school year on puberty/menstruation, HIV/AIDS, teen pregnancy, rape and sexual abuse, healthy and abusive relationships, substance abuse, leadership, and diabetes and staying healthy. These topics are all especially important on Pohnpei where teen pregnancy is a huge problem, one third of the population has diabetes, and domestic abuse is prevalent. Plus there's no sex ed on the island, so most of the girls had never had the "sex talk" before. Then at camp we did group activities involving these topics and invited guest speakers to join in the conversation. (Shocking things we learned from a local lawyer: the age of consent in Pohnpei is only 15, and only 13 in Chuuk. Also, marital rape is not illegal. Luckily the Pohnpei Women's Council is working hard with the legislature to change these laws.)

Learning CPR

Kelly Jo and Aidee demonstrate condom use on a cucumber

The International Organization for Migration came to talk
about natural disaster preparedness and the girls learned how
to start a generator, among other activities.

The girls show off the local baskets that they wove from palm fronds

My 11 GLOW girls from Pehleng Elementary, plus my two
fabulous co-teachers :)

Overall, the two camps were huge successes, aside from one night when the volunteers got no sleep ("Girls, get OUT of the showers and BACK in bed. It is 4 o'clock in the morning!!") and one medical emergency.

Next up, a boys' camp in July! (By the way, it will be called "Boyz 2 Men," not "BLOW," despite the wishes of my co-teachers. I had to explain the English connotation to them...)  Hopefully I'll have my energy back by then!