Empower Girls Now Wellness Weekend - Rotary Club of Garden City (Georgetown), Guyana
The Rotary Club of Garden City on Saturday October15 and Sunday October 16, 2022, launched its signature project of the year – “Empower Girls Now Wellness Weekend”.
The Wellness Weekend focused on revealing the full potential of girls to shape the future of their communities, eliminate or appropriately deal with obstacles they face and create social awareness of the concept #EmpowerGirlsNow under our theme of “Empowered Girls become Empowered Women”. This was done in association with a selected group of twenty young ladies aged 13-17 years old from the Guyana Girl Guides Association and, in collaboration with the Rotaract Club of the University of Guyana - who were onboard to help guide the girls through their group activities.
President Natasha Backer in her opening remarks shared with our participants a little of what Rotary is all about and what are some of the organization's values especially in the area of empowering girls and reassured all that through the club’s commitment we will make a difference in the lives of our young girls, who we deem our future leaders. Our program was structured so that our participants were exposed to concepts that covered several aspects of self-care, including physical, mental, and social health tips to communication skills and financial literacy tips and practices. And of course, being an environmentally focused club, we featured a session entitled “The Environment and You” that aimed to bring awareness of the impacts of our choices on the environment and how we can make small simple shifts to affect change. Our girls also heard from a special invited guest the Honourable Minister Vindhya Persaud, Minister of Human Services and Social Security who encouraged our girls to be actively involved in the conversations about their welfare and future and to be active in all spheres to develop their full true potential. Our Assistant Governor Liz Cox also brought greetings from District Governor Leslie Ramdhanny and enlisted their commitment to be authentic, to find their voice and inspire others to find theirs.
The highlight of the weekend was the Vision Board activity that challenged the girls to imagine their futures in the next few years and to create a board that would reflect such. With a sense of empowerment, the responses were limitless from traveling and wanting to learn Chinese, to furthering studies in vast fields, to becoming financially independent.
In our closing session the sentiments shared by participants and organizers alike echoed the same -It is in our power to change the social norms we have come to accept and to also be able to remove the biases and barriers that place limits on our girls so that we may see them flourish into the influential leaders of tomorrow’s society. Each girl was presented with a Certificate of Participation, a Tablet, and a Wellness Care Package.
@rotaryclubgardencitygtgy
#ImagineRotary
#IWD2023
#EmpowerGirlsNow
#RotaryDistrict7030
#Rotary7030
#District7030
#Rotaract7030
#RotaractDistrict7030
#Interact7030
#InteractDistrict7030
#EarlyAct7030
#EarlyActDistrict7030
#ChangingPerspectives