Girls Club at State School for the Deaf

Submitted by Lindsey Hanson; Adjei Kojo, Greater Accra

A girls club can be a great addition to any community. It teaches young women leadership, independence, assertiveness, and pride. I think all volunteers should have at least one club that meets either weekly, or monthly, depending on your schedule. It has been one of the best parts of my experience and lets me work outside of my primary project to teach students about issues that I feel are important to them. These topics are often things that are not taught in school and perhaps the parents do not discuss with their children at home, such as personal hygiene or proper condom use.

Based on an outline generated my Stephanie Carey, an education volunteer, I designed a girls club at my school. (See below) The first step was finding strong women teachers who were interested in running the club. I spoke with them about what issues female students at our school are having. From there we outlined what topics would be best to discuss and I arranged them in an order that made sense to me, several to coincide with National and International holidays. My main role in this club is to inform teachers and students when the meetings are and what topic we will discuss that month. I make the teachers run the meetings themselves, but I sit in and assist. I also was able to procure through the GYD SMALL FUND GRANT Ghc150.00 to purchase some items for the club meetings. These include red ribbons to support National Aids day and beads to make menstrual cycle bracelets. My other role is to contact guest speakers and put them in touch with the teachers running the meetings. I hope to forge some strong relationships, so the speakers will continue to come in the years after I am gone. By giving the teachers the lead role in this club they are setting good examples for the female students and also learning that they can run the club with little help from me. I hope this encourages them to continue the club in future years. If you need any more advice on starting a girls club feel free to contact me or your regional GYD representative.

Month	Topic	Activities
November *December 1st National Aids Day*	HIV/AIDS	Making pins and posters to raise awareness for National Aids Day. Learn about the ABC’s and play the risk game led by peer educators.
December	Personal Hygiene and Menstruation	Making fertility bracelets using recycled glass beads.
January	Entrepreneurship	Tour of Global Mammas distribution site in Ashaiman.
February	Assertiveness and Communication skills	Assertiveness role playing games, Deaf Pride slide show and discussion
March *March 8th International Women’s Day*	Leadership	Guest speaker from Leading Ladies Network in Accra to discuss leadership and what skills are found in a good leader.
April *April 16th World Malaria Day*	Malaria	Risk Game and Neem Cream demo and Net hanging demonstration. Guest speaker from Ghana Heath Service.
May	Self Defense	Basic techniques of protecting oneself demonstrated by local Tai-Kwon-Do instructor.
June	Self Esteem	Making God’s eyes craft and taking photos of the girls to be printed.
July	Birth control Family Planning STD’s	Guest speaker local nurse to discuss family planning and condom demo. Watch videos from PEPFAR and discuss the situations.