GLOW held its first camp in Georgia in 2003. It
accomplishes its mission through week-long summer camps and two subsequent
follow-up programs: Taking GLOW Home, through which girls carry out their own
community improvement projects, and the Ambassadors Conference, for girls who
implement three or more projects in their own communities. Additionally, GLOW
implements a separate Mother-Daughter Conference, which is an opportunity to
bring mothers and daughters together to address topics such as relationships
and communication, gender stereotypes, higher education, women's health,
hygiene and fitness, women's rights, and childhood marriages. The program has
become increasingly popular, with large increases in applications from year to
year. GLOW Georgia has over 10 years of experience working with Peace Corps Georgia Volunteers. GLOW Camp Activities have been supported through different organizations among others, Peace Corps Georgia, US Embassy Alumni Program, the Embassy of Canada, Orbeliani Foundation.
GLOW Georgia Camp
The GLOW summer camp provides an overview of gender and diversity issues, human rights,
advocacy and civic responsibility in Georgia, as well as critical thinking, project planning, and leadership skills. Critical reasoning and civic responsibility are both under-emphasized in the Georgian educational system, to negative societal result. GLOW provides campers with the necessary tools and information for them to create change in their lives and communities. Camp ends with presentations by campers on projects they have planned during camp to address problems they have identified in their communities, with a primary focus on women empowerment, gender equality,
advocacy.
Projects in Community
After camp, attendees are encouraged to use their training in project design
and management to implement projects in their communities that are tailored to
relevant issues they have identified. These projects take many forms, ranging
from training on social and environmental topics, such as gender equality,
mental health, and domestic violence, to film screenings and art exhibitions.
The girls submit their completed projects to GLOW and those who successfully
complete three projects and start the GLOW Club in four months are invited to apply to the Ambassadors’ Program.
Ambassadors’ Conference
The Ambassadors’ Conference is open to camp alumni who
complete three projects and launch a GLOW Club in the months after camp. The conference focuses on professionalism,
communication, and networking, with workshops on topics like resume building,
presentation skills, and social media. The girls are given opportunities to
network with one another and with local professionals through a resource fair
and several guest speakers. The conference also expands on the project design
and management training received at camp. The girls are taught about grant
writing and, upon successful completion of the conference, are able to apply to
our small grants program.
Small Grants
After attending the Ambassadors’ Conference, the Ambassadors can apply for
small grants of up to 200 GEL through the Small Grants Program. The Ambassadors
are eligible to apply either individually or with a fellow Ambassador in order
to implement funded projects in their communities based on the needs assessed.
The Ambassadors must partner with local organizations and receive at least 25%
community contribution in order to receive funding. The Small Grants Program
allows the Ambassadors to expand the scope and impact of the projects they
implement, making them more effective agents of change in their communities.
This also boosts their enthusiasm as well as gives them an opportunity to
experience the whole grant writing, management and monitoring skills in
practice.
Mother-Daughter Conference
Girls in Georgia face a variety
of gender-based issues including early marriage, encouragement to drop out of
school to maintain a family, gender-based violence, street harassment, and
more. GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) was
established in Georgia to not only help combat these issues directly but also
to encourage girls to gain the knowledge, confidence, and skills necessary to
combat both these and other concerns in Georgia at large. GLOW’s goal is to continue the fight against
gender-based problems and the Mother-Daughter Conference will address many of
the issues facing girls in Georgia by discussing these problems and attempting
to overcome them with not only the directly affected girls but also their
mothers. The conference’s overall the objective is to increase the mothers’ awareness of these issues and existing
harmful practices so that they may provide their daughters with a strong and an informed support system to help their daughters face these barriers and
overcome them, to increase their awareness on girls’ value in the society and
to increase the girls’ awareness of these problems and ways to solve them.
The Mother-Daughter Conference
provides sessions on common problems girls face in Georgia that are often not
discussed or ignored because they are deemed embarrassing or inappropriate, or
because mothers themselves are uninformed and thus have no way of discussing
these topics with their daughters. These
topics include early marriage, women’s health, relationships and communication,
higher education, the different ways daughters and sons are raised in Georgia
and more. Our goal is to give the 20
mothers and 20 daughters involved in this conference a safe space to learn
about these issues so that they can have the knowledge and comfort level to
discuss these problems and overcome them together.
