In July, girls from 79 countries and 89 U.S. councils met in Chicago
to address the world's most urgent challenges. Using their well-honed
leadership skills, girls devised systems to help end poverty and hunger.
They also focused on ways to empower women and promote gender equity.
And, tapping into their passion for environmental issues, girls worked
to ensure environmental sustainability. The selected attendees, ages 14 to 18, hope to motivate and inspire a global sisterhood of girls their age. From July 11-17, 2012, Girl Scouts Raydijah and Caitlyn and Girl Scouts alumna Shedaria represented our Council at the forum. Below is an interview with Raydijah and Caitlyn about their experience!
Why did you decide to accept the nomination to
attend the Girls’ World Forum (GWF)?
Raydijah: I
accepted the nomination because I thought it would be an awesome opportunity to
meet people and learn about other cultures.
Caitlyn: I
was honored to be nominated. I thought it would be an once-in-a-lifetime
experience to be exposed to so many different people and cultures.
What did you do to prepare for the GWF?
Raydijah: I
looked at my community and saw what was wrong and I looked at the Millennium Development
Goals we would be discussing…and I also did my pre-work required by Girl Scouts
of the USA, of course.
Caitlyn: I
did look up the Millennium Development Goals. For me, it was different because
I just turned 14 and it was one of the first times I was looking at global
issues, so I tried to get informed so I had some knowledge before I went. I
also researched WAGGGS.
(The delegation also had three meetings and attended
a special tea with Board Member Lillian Walby to learn more about the World
Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.)
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What was the GWF?
Raydijah: It
was to focus on three Millennium Development Goals that are big issues for Girl
Scouts and teach girls about other countries and their problems with the same
goals.
Caitlyn: It
was a lot of things. It was a centenary celebration. It was a gathering of
girls from all over the world to become educated about issues they might not
necessarily see in their community, and to get realistic solutions as to how
they could help in their community.
Raydijah & Caitlyn also described that the
forum had lots of different sessions: plenary sessions with keynote
speakers, breakout sessions with small groups, and different sessions for the
education of the problems, solutions for the problems, and leadership,
self-esteem and advocacy skill-building.
What did you learn at the GWF?
Caitlyn: I
just learned so much about how even though we’re on the other side of the
world, we do have a lot of similarities, but at the same time, there is a lot
of stuff I had no idea that’s going on in other countries. I made really good
friends with a girl from Hong Kong and we were talking about gender equality.
We were talking about the problems in our community. I was telling her that
here women get paid 30% less than men, but she told me that in Hong Kong, it’s
actually reversed. Men don’t get into universities and they don’t get jobs as easily
as women. She was shocked to learn that the U.S.’s situation is so different.
Raydijah: I
learned so much I can’t even put it all into words but one big thing I learned
is how similar and how different we are from girls in other countries. For
example, there was a girl from Malaysia there. Where she’s from, girls are not
allowed to drive and they aren’t allowed out of the house without a male figure
as opposed to the Cook Islands, where everyone is equal no matter what you are,
no matter what, everyone is equal. I want to go there SO BAD, you don’t
understand! J
Who did you meet at the GWF?
Caitlyn: There
was this girl from New Zealand and her accent was cooler than British and Australian
combined. All these girls are like so smart, and they’re so passionate about
these issues. Like, Raydijah got close to one girl in particular, but I met a
lot of people from New Zealand, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Korea, Malaysia, the
Maldives, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.
Raydijah: I
particularly close to one girl from the Cook Islands. I don’t want to brag
about her, but she was the most amazing person I ever met. She was so sweet and
welcoming. I met people from everywhere, Thailand, Namibia, Cincinnati, Miramar,
Japan, Dominica, Curacao, and London (can’t leave out London! We called the
girl from London Fergie).
What did you do at the GWF?
Caitlyn: First
of all, we had six sessions, one for each Millennium Development Goal, so we
had sessions educating us about the issues and we had what we could do to make
a difference. We had reflection sessions with our chaperone Shedaria, we had
keynote speakers, and we had people coming to teach us skill-building to help
us take out our Take Action plans. We did a lot of stuff. There
wasn’t an average day. We went on different trips around Chicago. They were
called Take Action Days. We did very different things. I planted grass.We
were busy in every sense of the word.
Raydijah: A
better question would be what we didn’t we do! (In addition to what Caitlyn mentioned)… we went on different field
trips in the environment, like to the zoo. I also walked around a recycled
building that has a garden. We went on the rooftop and looked at the solar
panels. There were night activities too. One night activity was International
Night where we got to learn about other cultures. We went on a double-decker
bus tour to see Chicago. There
were at least three sessions in a day. You got about two or three short breaks.
Most days, we were in a very small room with a lot of other girls. There were
various activities and work. We had a lot of work.
What did you enjoy about the GWF?
Caitlyn: Everything! As hectic and cramped as the
schedule was, looking back it was probably the only experience I’ll have to
meet so many people from all over the world in the matter of a week and gain so
much knowledge.
Raydijah: I
loved meeting people from everywhere and hearing their language and hearing
what they like to do back home for fun and telling them what Miami’s like.
Everyone’s heard of Miami.
What was challenging about your trip to the GWF?
Caitlyn: For,
that would be the schedule and being away from home. This was my first big trip
away from home, and it was a week. And just being exhausted every day. But, it
was definitely worth it.
Raydijah: Although
I’ve been away from home before, being away from my mom was probably the
hardest thing, because you just need that love that you’re used to. But now
that I’m back home, I definitely think all my heartache was worthwhile because
that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
What was Shedaria (the young adult volunteer
chaperone) like?
Caitlyn: Shedaria
was such an awesome chaperone. She let us have enough freedom to where we could
go shopping or go to the Navy Pier but she always made sure that we got to
where we needed to be. For me, one morning I started to feel really dizzy and
had to miss some sessions. She stayed with me the entire time and made sure I
was drinking my Gatorade to get my electrolytes back up. And she also really
helped us brainstorm a lot about our Take
Action project.
Raydijah: Shedaria
was absolutely amazing. She was the perfect person because she’s around our age
so we can relate to her but she can also be an authority figure. She allowed us
our freedom like Caitlyn said but she always made sure she knew where we were
and if we were okay.
What is the Take
Action project you’ll be doing all about?
Caitlyn: We
noticed that in the Chicago airport there are recycling bins everywhere but in
the Miami International Airport there is no recycling. I think if it’s
convenient for people to recycle, they will. We decided to focus on Millennium DG
#7 which is environmental sustainability. My understanding is that we will
start at the camp level with the Forever
Green program and try to implement it even further throughout council, and
then we will branch out into other places in the community, either together or
apart. My idea for camp and council is for FPL to do a free energy efficiency
evaluation. They will tell us what to do to make the office more energy
efficient. We can try to get donors to get us the right light bulbs, replace
paper towels with hand dryers, and renovate the office to become greener.
Raydijah: I
want to do a beach clean-up. Hopefully we can make it a few days out of the
year that are beach clean-up days. And another thing we are looking at is
getting recycling bins at council and at the airport. We want to inform people
about what recycling could do in our community.
The girls also want to focus on Millennium Development
Goal #7 (environmental sustainability) in their planned Gold Award projects.
Do you think it’s important for our council to
participate in other WWAGGGS gatherings in the future? Why/not?
Caitlyn: Definitely.
They are such a huge organization and they can provide many opportunities for
the council. They are huge. They have so much going on. They can do more than
our council can do by itself.
Raydijah: Yes,
because they’re a great organization with so much to offer and they would be
good to include in our projects because they can help branch our projects
further out into the world.
Anything else?
Raydijah: I
want to thank the people who nominated me. Also I want to thank Ms. Shedaria Deleveaux
for being the chaperone, she’s amazing. I want to thank Ms. Julia Onnie-Hay (Director of Programs) for preparing us
to go to the Forum.
Caitlyn: I
just have a lot of people to thank. Basically everyone at council: Ms. Beverly
Jones, Ms. Julia Onnie-Hay (Director of Programs), Ms. Shedaria Deleveaux,
everybody for constantly asking me how the trip was going, and I was just so
honored to be nominated in the first place, and it was such an amazing
experience, and thank you, everybody.
A 32 billion dollar global business is sure to draw some attention. It has captured the focus of a Girl Scout of Tropical Florida named Andrea Diaz-Ariza. “Teens Against Trafficking” is the Girl Scout Gold Award project for Andrea who is a member of Troop 532 and a 10th grader at Our Lady of Lourdes Academy. Andrea is doing her part to stop the world-wide epidemic of human trafficking.
Others have taken notice of Andrea’s efforts. Recently, she appeared on NBC 6 South Florida’s, 6 in the Mix with Roxanne Vargas to promote her cause. The video replay can be found here. Andrea is a national semi-finalist for the Peace First Prize. She is the inspiration for the first Florida statewide Girl Scout Advocacy Conference taking place Presidents’ Day weekend 2014, and is a valuable member of the Girls’ Advisory Board. “Teens Against Trafficking” has earned Andrea her Girl Scout Gold Award, which is the highest level of achievement in Scouting.
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