Activities of Camp GLOW

In-between sessions with the help of our counterparts we ran quite a few different activities. Most of them were meant to let the girls get to know each other and to help them bond a little during the camp. These led to some of the most fun moments of the entire camp.

The first day we had the girls all make a bag. Inside the bag they wrote a note to themselves about something they liked about themselves. Then throughout the camp we asked the girls to write notes to the other girls, mainly girls in other villages that they had gotten to know. This activity was a huge success. I loved seeing the girls put notes in each others boxes.

 Our activity that night was decorating t-shirts. Hal made a fabulous stencil and we spray painted it onto all of the shirts. They turned out great!

Day two we did an activity called Cross the Line. This is where the girls stand on a line and we read a statement like "This is my first time to Siem Reap," or "I think I am beautiful."

 I ended up joining the girls in this game and sometimes I was the only one who crossed the line. This led to a good discussion with the girls after the game.

That night we had a girly night were we colored, made bracelets and painted our nails. Or more accurately, they painted their nails, and our nails. We had so much fun this night, we ended up teaching the girls the macarena, and they seemed to have a great time learning it.

Day 3 our activities was so much fun. We started out with a yoga session led by me. I was impressed with their skills, especially at tree pose. We played a name game where we put a sheet in the middle and split the girls in half. Then one girl from each group comes up to the sheet. We drop the sheet and the first girl to say the other girls name wins. This was such a blast.

This was our last night of the camp so we decided to go big. We brought the girls into Siem Reap town. First we took them to a tourist market and then to Lucky Mall where they were all very excited to go. They ate American food at Lucky Burger and had some time to visit the mall before we ended with some ice cream.

Our last day we had a lot of fun taking a million pictures in our sweet Camp GLOW shirts. Seriously, a million pictures.

I hope the girls had as much fun as I did at Camp GLOW. Seriously, everything went so smoothly and the girls did amazing. It ended up being a blast and I'm so glad that I was able to spend those 4 days with them.

Camp GLOW

My very last and biggest project I did in Cambodia finished up in our very last days at site. This project was probably 6 months in the making, involved 3 PCVs 2 husbands, 2 Cambodian counterparts, 2 NGOs and 4 NGO workers. I partnered with two other volunteers and all together we brought 39 girls into Siem Reap town for four days. Most of these girls are from semi rural villages and had never been to Siem Reap, or stayed in a guesthouse before.

Camp GLOW is a Peace Corps world wide project, and ours was dedicated mostly to teaching the girls things, especially health related, that they either don't learn in the school system, or at home. We wanted to give them an opportunity to learn things that aren't widely talked about in Cambodian culture. 

The first two days we were so fortunate to work with three lovely ladies from Our Strength, located in Battambong town. These ladies, and this organization is fabulous. I can be hard to find a really great female role model in Cambodia, and these ladies were the best role models we could have asked for. They interacted with the girls and were so happy to answer all of their sensitive questions.

Our Strength taught about STDs and sexual health, healthy relationships, pregnancy, maturation, and gender and more. At first the girls were a little timid and the room was very quiet. As the days went on the girls became more and more active in the lessons, and with teach other. Our Strength had multiple Q&A sessions which allowed the girls to ask questions as they became more comfortable. My girls seemed to really like the lessons about STDs and maturation, especially about their periods.

The third day of Camp GLOW we had a wonderful woman named Pisey from The Womans Resource Center in Siem Reap come. Although in the beginning Pisey's sessions were not as interactive, the girls seemed to absolutely love the information she shared. She taught about healthy relationships, domestic violence, and goal setting. The girls had an opportunity to do some lesson planning this day and almost all of the groups decided to lesson plan about domestic violence.

On our fourth and last day at camp we were mostly on our own. We couldn't have done it without the help of my counterpart though. She helped teach them how to lesson plan for their lessons they would teach back in their villages. Part of Camp GLOW is that they have to teach people back in their villages about what they learned. 

First they lesson planned for a short lesson and gave mock lessons to each other. Then they got into village groups and started lesson planing for their actual lessons.  

We ended the Camp with certificates, picture taking, and a slideshow of pictures from the camp.

I am so glad that I was able to go out on such a fantastic note, and that I was able to see how much not only my girls, but how all of the girls loved the camp. I couldn't have picked a better group of people to work with either. I hope the new volunteers coming to our town will keep my girls club going and do another Camp GLOW with new girls next year!

See more about Camp GLOW activities here. Or about my girls educating their community here.