Señoritas Líderes

In the beginning, I had no idea what I was doing.  Well, maybe “no idea” is a bit of an exaggeration.  I like working with youth; I am an older sister so I’ve grown up mentoring and interacting with younger girls while being mentored and loved by my “strong, all-women’s liberal arts educated” mother (as we often say); I attended an all-women’s university where woman’s leadership and development was highly emphasized; I have had a few experiences being a teaching assistant or running a workshop with young girls or women.  BUT, I have never created, planned and facilitated a young girls leadership group…and then in another culture and language.

Regardless of the the pre-text, whether or not I was (or am) qualified to do this, this is what my assignment was and is.  It is not just an assignment; it is a need and something I wanted to do.  So, here we are.  It is July.  The group has been up and running for about 6 months (planning and recruiting of course started before).  The first weeks…it was a good day when I had 3 girls.  There was a Friday when I only had 1.  And then it happened.  They started to come…and they kept coming.  We now have 13 on the attendance sheet with about 10 that are very consistent.  Now, numbers are great, but they do not capture it.  These aren’t just numbers these señoritas, they are engaged, active, willing participates who want to learn and do something; who have really started to own their group.  They take initiative, are great workers, and work as a team.  I love them more every Friday that we meet.

Here are some highlights:

• Choosing their name (which is more their motto now as it was kind of long and the name Señoritas Líderes [Girl Leaders] has stuck).  They had many ideas, discussions were made, along with voting.  The final vote was: Señoritas que nunca se rinden [Girls that never give up]
• Everything month they plan out what we are going to do for the month.  They understand that there should be a variety of activities (some focused on learning or improving ourselves and others can be recreational).

Workshops and themes we’ve seen and worked with:

                a.    Women’s health

b.      Sexual health and pregnancies

c.       Public speaking

d.      Planning and hosting an activity

e.      Learning about other cultures through conversations with volunteers from other countries

• Planning and executing a “rally” on Saturday.

a.       A rally here is where there are several stations of games and the youth are in teams and must complete all the stations.  The first to complete them all wins.

b.      My señoritas were amazing!  They took the planning very seriously, made shirts to identify themselves, came early, set everything up and the activity was a GREAT success!  It was truly THEIR activity and was LESS work for me.  I was just BEAMING with pride. :)

• Circle discussion with an invited affiliated young woman guest who had a baby before graduation (and is still studying with her 1 year old baby).

a.       The invited guest shared her experience, the changes in her life after having a baby (the good and the bad and the different)

b.      She encouraged my girls to really take advantage of “their youth” and study hard while they are their only responsibility

c.       One of my girls asks, “what was it like to give birth?” and then quickly covered her mouth embarrassed…thinking she shouldn’t have asked such a question.  But it was a perfect question for this place and this space of all women.  I encouraged the question and the open space and our invited guest was happy to explain what her experience was like.  It was GREAT.  This is something all girls are curious about…but what happens if you don’t have a safe space to ask the questions and hear the answers?

There are many more highlights…some I remember and some I know I am forgetting.  All I can say is I am SO happy I started this group and am proud of the young women who are making it into what it is.  Friday afternoons are starting to be one of my favorite parts of my week.  They are such eager girls – goofy and full of life…but able to be serious and get work done too.  It is SUCH a pleasure to work with them and be a part of their girls group.

I am a bit nervous about the sustainability of this group.  Just for the fact, that currently there is only one other woman working in my office and her work load is already full…and therefore would not be able to continue the girls group once I leave.  The plan is that another volunteer will be hired to take my place.  I can just hope that she has the same passion (if we can designate the volunteer be a woman) as I do for girls leadership and development.  I don’t want to see this group end.  And it is going to be incredibly hard to let them go.

Though, not focusing on the end but on the time I still have with them…we have in the works, a “water day”..guess I’ll be getting wet that day. :)  Also, next month I want to bring in a panel of working women to give them an idea of the variety of opportunities they can have in the work force and to hear about these women’s experiences.  I hope to get a variety of women in different positions (some that are positions where women are not as often seen).

I didn’t know what I was doing.  I still can’t say I am completely sure.  But the beauty is I don’t have to have it all figured out…because these young women are the leaders.  They are going to make this group their own…I am just here to support them.

This is not all of them - but don't they just make you smile?! :)