Camp GLOW and BE in Southern Province by Alma A.

Alma Aldrich
Health-T (Niger), Nyaruguru District, Southern Province





In November and December 2011, I helped organize Camps GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and BE (Boys Excelling). The camps were really fun and certainly a highlight of my Peace Corps experience. We focused on youth empowerment, teaching lessons and conducting activities on goal setting, life skills, HIV/AIDS prevention, and family planning among other things. Everyone involved (PCVs, community leaders, and students) seemed to have a blast and learn a lot. Now, back at site, I have started a youth club with the students who attended the camps. They have assigned themselves leadership positions and agreed on club rules. This week we are planning our first club event: a performance skit to invite other students to join the club. 

PCV Alma Aldrich with students from her sector who attended
GLOW & BE Camps in Nyaruguru District.

AWID and Current Gender Development Criticisms by Rachel V.

Rachel Vannice

Health 3, Nyagatare District, Eastern Province

AWID (the Association for Women's Rights in Development) is an association with many facets. They have their own publication in addition to drawing attention to articles like these that highlight other development blogs. In addition, they have various initiatives to highlight and gather information on various engendered issues. They have several newsletters one of which is a news brief and update with calls for urgent action and several ways to get involved with collaborative organizations, including UN Agencies and Int'l. NGOs. They also have a terribly useful newsletter that lists job vacancies with all of the above. They do a great job of getting various angles of the problems and successes with various programs for gender promotion and equality.

The article below is a very surface-level analysis of various criticisms with current gender promotion projects in development. It touches on many of the complications that are inherent in the work for keeping gender in mind in development. I think many of the problems stated are fairly obvious in any development and not just that associated with gender. However, it does have some useful examples and links to the various studies and projects considered in the analysis.

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http://www.awid.org/News-Analysis/Women-s-Rights-in-the-News2/Donor-Policies-Fail-to-Bring-Real-and-Sustained-Change-for-Women 

Donor Policies Fail To Bring Real And Sustained Change For Women

Source: Guardian News and Media Limited 

07/03/2012

For all their talk of empowerment, initiatives by development agencies and donors fail to tackle power imbalances, and do not allow women to realise their own hopes and dreams. 

The empowerment of women and girls has risen up the development agenda in recent years, championed by powerful financial institutions, the philanthropic wings of major transnational corporations and influential development donors as a sought-after panacea. There's an appealing simplicity to the argument for investing in women and girls. Women and girls have been overlooked. They have so much potential. Get them into work, and poverty will disappear. Get them into school, and high birthrates will decrease. Get them into politics, and peace will reign. Invest in their potential and in their families, and communities and nations will yield the benefits.