The Power of You

When the world seems to be against you, just hold on to your strength to persevere and your will to make it through.  Just when I think I have problems, I realize that they are mainly misplaced concerns.  I grew up in a society where I was taught sex education at age of 14.  I had access to the information, ways of prevention and open and honest conversations.  So now that I have the opportunity to teach girls of a similar age, I take this responsibility seriously given the social justice issues they face in this country. 

Today was the last day of our camp and I am proud of our successes over this past weekend. The morning started out good as the participants arrived on time.  Using play money as a motivator works! Who doesn't want to win prizes!  I also introduced the girls to Yoga, as an alternative to our normal morning workouts.  They seemed interested so we will try at another time when we have more time to focus on the craft.  Since today was not as structured as Saturday, we took group pictures in the morning and they took several other pictures as always!

We began our morning with doing a recap of what they learned the day prior as a way for me to test and guage information retention among the participants. For the most part everyone remembered what we talked about and was about to contribute a thought to the conversation.  After the recap we began talking about HIV/AIDS.  In order to convey the message to the girls, I made sure to speak slowly and to use alot of examples.  The social work students then would translate what I said for further comprehension.  In order to connect content with comprehension, we played the balloon game, as well as the transmission game (as seen in the HIV/AIDS staff training).  After our snacks we went on to discuss STIs and Stigma of people living with HIV/AIDS.  They played the myth vs fact game and we could see that they learned a lot.

After lunch we came back and watched the power of you video which talked about decision making among youth and asking for help, seeking counseling for STI's or HIV. We then ended our day with the poster making activity. It was beautiful and I am so proud of my girls. I know that they will remember the information and ask for more sessions to build upon this weekend.