Re Bokamoso, Let's GLOW!

For the past 6 months or so, I've been apart of the National GLOW Camp committee in Bots. GLOW stands for Girls (and Guys) Leading Our World and can be found in Peace Corps countries around the world. Many of my fellow PCVs have run GLOW camps throughout Bots, consisting of groups of students in their village or region, coming together for 3-5 days to learn life skills, leadership, and sexual and reproductive health. Although I had helped run two successful and similar Boot Camps at my school, I had yet to be apart of a GLOW camp, something RPCVs had told me I must do. Two PCVs from my intake group decided to attempt a National GLOW camp, pulling students from all over the country, and after applying, I was chosen to be on the curriculum committee. As a committee, we set the curriculum schedule and sessions for the camp. I focused mainly on Life Skills: goal setting, communication, emotional health, self confidence, positive friendships, stress management, decision making, and self awareness.

The National GLOW team (which we named, Re Bokamoso, Let's GLOW!) worked tirelessly on funding, logistics, curriculum, and everything in-between. The students finally arrived over the July holidays and we spent the week with 78 eight and ninth graders, and their teachers, social workers, and nurses, from all over the country. It was an incredible week. It was amazing to see the curriculum I had been developing come to life on day 1. As the days passed, you could see students breaking out of their shells, becoming more confident, and believing in themselves. Students made friends with kids from other schools and worked together to excel throughout the camp. Day 1 was dedicated to life skills, day 2 to sexual and reproductive health as well as HIV awareness and prevention, day 3 to gender and relationships, and day 4 to leadership. On day 4 we took a field trip to Parliament and were able to tour the building. I was so proud of our students as they asked intelligent questions that seemed to stump our tour guide, and continued to make sure their voices were heard. Our certificate ceremony was a celebration like no other as we cheered with all our might for each and every participant.

They came to us unsure and timid, but they left full of energy and confidence, armed with new knowledge and friendships. As we said goodbye to each van and bus full of students, I gave them all high fives and reminded them to be rock stars. It was the perfect final project of my PC service. We had an incredible group of facilitators and an inspirational group of kids. A week to remember for a lifetime.