12+ Kicukiro

Girls sharing reasons for saving

 This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend and help with one of our 12+ trainings in Kigali. I was so impressed by how smooth it went (the first time was a little rough but they really have their act together and were well prepared). The training started at 2 pm and the trainers had arrived at 11 am to prepare. The girls are now on to their second module and they had a great time.

This week's topics were Why Save Money?, Know Your Body, and the Fundamentals of Puberty. The girls started out by sharing their group cheer and song. One of the supervisors and I were pulled into their song and dance as we walked around in a circle and they sung about making good decisions. Throughout the day, the mentors called out to the girls "Yes I do" met with the response "I do, I do."

 For the session on saving money, the girls stood in a circle and threw a ball of yarn to each other as they said what they would save money for. The responses varied from a new pair of shoes, to clothes, to food. They also spoke of long and short term goals for saving and prioritizing saving money.

Girls taking the pre-test before the session began

For the module on Know Your Body, the girls discussed why they should know their bodies (feeling a sense that it is their own, feeling comfortable with yourself, and taking care of yourself to remain healthy). The girls had cards with body parts on them and they took turns labeling a picture of the human body.

Posting body parts on the image

12+ Coordinator

Answering questions from the mentors

Girls playing a version of Simon Says 

Learning about puberty

Supervision- watching the mentors interact with the girls

The other intern at PSI Rwanda

With 6 groups of girls and few rooms, we had some girls under tents

Yay interns!

It was so nice to see how excited the mentors and girls were during the training. It made the program "real" and not just a bunch of feedback forms and numbers which have been my experience with the project thus far. It was so great to see what was actually happening on the ground and I'm so glad I get to be a part of this program.