Girl Power Clubs Africa to Lead Global Mentoring Walk

Preparations are underway to mark this year's International Women's Day on 5th March, in Uholo, Ugenya Constituency, Kenya, with the Global Mentoring Walk that will see more than 200 girls partner with mentors who will help them make life's decisions. This is be the first time that an event of this nature takes place in a rural setting in Kenya.

We are pleased that Vital Voices Fellow Dr. Liz Odera, chose the Girl Power Clubs Africa Program in Ugunja Constituency to be the flag-bearers for Kenya. The Guest of Honour will be the Siaya County Women’s MP Hon Dr Christine Ombaka. Other leaders from the county will be present. It will be a precursor event to celebrate the International Women’s Day.

The Day’s Programme

8.00 – 9.00 a.m. High school girls and community women leaders converge at the Sigomre Chief’s Camp.

9.30 a.m. – 10.00 a.m. Flag off of the Ceremony

Women and Girls begin walk, which ends at the Sigomre Secondary School

11.00 a.m. – Speech by the Guest of Honour, Hon Dr Christine Ombaka 

                   - Speech by Ugunja MP Hon Opiyo Wandayi

11.30 a.m. – Girls and mentors hold group discussions

12.30 p.m. – Lunch and guests leave at their own leisure.

        

Notes to the Editor

1. Vital Voices is a leading non-governmental organization (NGO) that identifies, trains and empowers emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe, enabling them to create a better world. Vital Voices believes that mentoring is a critical activity in empowering women to succeed as leaders and creating opportunities for women on a local scale.
2. Girl Power Clubs Africa is a women leadership program that trains teenage girls to become agents of positive change through sport, culture, art and dance, addressing Action against violence; personal abilities; healthy lifestyles; HIV and AIDS; self-esteem; entrepreneurship; role modeling, and taking leadership roles. Current membership: 1530 girls in 32 schools within Nairobi, Busia and Siaya Counties, with networks in Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. Website: www.girlpowerclubs.org
3. The Global Mentoring Walk is an opportunity to highlight the importance of women’s leadership, and to accelerate the impact of women leaders through mentoring. Organized by outstanding local leaders who are key members of the Vital Voices Global Leadership Network, the annual Mentoring Walk brings together established women leaders and emerging women leaders to walk together in their community.
4. As they walk, they discuss their professional challenges and successes and establish a mentoring relationship in which the seasoned leader guides, advises and supports her peer. The benefits of women’s mentorship are numerous. It establishes camaraderie, creates gender-friendly environments, promotes a stronger environment for women’s success, and expands horizons for further personal growth as you explore innovative leadership strategies
5. For more information, please contact Maria Okong'o, the Girl Power Clubs Program Leader in Siaya County, okongomaria@gmail.com and +254-727-869-882. 

February 2015 Coordinator Report

The month of February has been a very short and exciting month full of activities. The interns who joined us have been great assets to the club in enabling it run its activities. We managed to register the entire club member in different schools and we are looking forward to the next month’s activities.

Entrepreneurship To Launch in Siaya

The entrepreneurship project is to be launched on the 7^th of March in Sigomre. The participants in this workshop are going to be around 50 pupils selected form all the Girl Power Clubs in Siaya site. We expect them to share the information they learn with the other club members and help them in managing their group projects. The survey conducted in January on this shows a positive outlook towards business and entrepreneurship.

During the visit to Sigomre in March, we are also expected to hold a talk in Got Osimbo girls on menstruation and over bleeding. This was a request by the patron of the club in this school, since there are very many cases of girls excessively bleeding during menstruation.  

Girl Power Clubs May Go To Busia!

We are progressing with plans to ensure that the new clubs in Busia are up and running. They have finished their registration and submitted the forms to us. They are ten new clubs in with twenty members each. We plan to visit the site and the schools soon. In this area we are partnering with an organization on the ground called HWAY (Helping Women and Youth). This organization focuses on children girls and youth, on two areas: disease and poverty eradication. Under poverty eradication they do fabric making, table banking, Poultry keeping, farming, and Mary go rounds. Mr. Bernard Wangira is the manager of the organization.

Improvement of Presentations In Sessions

The life skills session coverage is going on well although exams and midterm breaks are really affecting the sessions. The girls are enjoying the session a lot. Role play, group work and games are used to teach the sessions. This has led to a more interactive system of learning and the girls are really enjoying themselves a l

Kibera Girl Power Office Re-Opens For The Year

The Girl Power Club office in Kibera is operation. The Project Assistant and interns are on site every working day. We hope to have girls visit the office for sessions as we progress on.

Use Of Kibera Tennis and Sports Court

Regarding the tennis and sports court in kibera only one school that is Nazarine Primary has given dates that they will use the court. We are waiting for feedback from St. Catherine and Nairobi Day. Olympic primary, Olympic high school and Karen C have playing fields.

February Monthly Girl Power Clubs Sports Day

February ended on a great note with the Girl Power Club sports day.  All schools were invited and but three failed to come; Huruma girls, Karen C high school, Nairobi day. They informed us that they had ongoing exams. The schools that were present include Olympic primary, Olympic high school, St. Catherine and Nazarine primary.  The patrons present were Mr. Orao from Oympic high, Mr. William Ochieng of St. Catherine and Mr. Charles of Nazarine Primary school. Mr. Ben Okoth of St .Catherine came along with the patron from St. Catherine. We played four sports: touch rugby, football, netball and volleyball. These games were refereed by the girls themselves, which was an excellent leadership development.

Joy Akinyi

Project Coordinator

Girl Power Clubs Africa

Girl Power Leadership Workshop

''I HAVE A BALL'' GIRL LEADERS WORKSHOP

Girl leaders form different Girl Power Clubs meet at Sadili Oval Sports Academy's members lounge to mark the year's first girls meeting. The workshop whose purpose was to have the girls intodeuced to the year's activities and equipped with the necessarry skills needed to help them through leadership.

Vital skills such as servant leadership, the value of team work, communication,integrity, honesty and alot more was learnt.

Begining with a Health talk by Dr. Mwaka Mutsumi (one of our project assistants) followed by a movie session by JaYoung Naphtalie Margaret (our project assistant) where the girls watched an inspiring movie ''The Invictus'' which depicted one of Africa's greatest heros, Nelson Mandela and his term as president of South Africa. Helping the girls through the discussion session where important lessons were drawn was done by guest speaker,Ms.Pauline Nyawira and assisted by JaYoung Naphtalie Margaret.

The day climaxed with founder, Dr.Elizabeth Odera take the girls through introduction to ''I have A Ball'' as which was combined with one one health talk session with the help of Dr. Mwaka Mutsumi. Girls expressed their thoughts, shared their views, exchanged ideas and learnt of very many health facts and found clarification on many health topics in the focus topics of Menstration and Abortion and how girls are affected.

Ending the eventfull day were rules the girls came up with that would later guide them in their new competition ''I Have A Ball'', thereafter the girls were given new balls that they will use in their respective chosen sports, received their participation certificates and a group photo! This one day workshop also marked the begining of campaings for SISTERHOOD WORLD CUP 2012!

What Is ''I Have A Ball'' Campaign

"I Have A Ball is a unique way for girls to express themselves without fear for stigma and victimasition is through sports. They are encourages to find creative ways to do it, by expressing an important issue in their community, and it must be around a sport ball. The type of ball does not really matter, soccer, basketball, volleyball or tennis. "I Have A Ball" is one such initiative by Girl Power Clubs Africa where girls present life-skills in a ball game that they play as a team and highlight issues they face most, how it affects them, what can, should or wish could be done.

 Rules for participating in the competition.
 1. A ball must be part of the presentation
 2. The game must include 5 - 12 participants at maximum
 3. Parts of the game
       > Introduction 
       > Demonstration 
       > List of requirements
       > The act (sport or game), must show a life skill
       > Must show conclusion