alma

In the beginning of Februrary, the Peace Corps volunteers in Piura held a four day camp for teenage girls. It was called ALMA: Actividades de Liderazago para Mujeres Adolescentes (Leadership activities for adolescent girls). Since last November, a group about 20 of us had been meeting to plan the retreat. The camp was completely PC volunteer run: we arranged for speakers, a vocational panel, team-building activities, leadership games and activities, and all of the logistics of the camp. Each volunteer brought 2 or three teenage girls from their own communities who excel as leaders in their community and show potential to excel. I brought two 15 year old girls from the high school, Perlita and Roxana. I have worked with both girls a lot over the past school year and have seen that they both possess a lot of potential to succeed and go to university to become professionals. Currently, it is very uncommon for high school graduates (especially girls) to leave Pampa Elera and go to college. The goal of this retreat was to reward the girls for their hard work thus far, and show them some of the options they have outside of their little communities.

The retreat was, by far, one of the most rewarding projects I have worked on so far in Peru. It was so wonderful to Perlita and Roxana meet other girls from all over Piura who are just like them, and have what it takes to succeed. In addition to meeting other girls their age, they got to hear from and get to know successful Peruvian women. Over the four days, a doctor, a businesswoman, a policewoman, a teacher, an engineer, a sociologist, a lawyer, a psychologist, and an artisan came to meet with the girls to share their stories, give advice, and inspire them. Most of these professional women came from low socioeconomic backgrounds, just like the girls at the camp, but overcame their challenges to become successful Peruvians. The girls also learned about volunteerism, entrepreneurism, sexual health, feminism, self-discovery, and domestic violence.

At the end of the retreat, Perlita, Roxana, and I discussed what we had learned and started to plan how we were going to take our knowledge back to our community. The girls are planning on doing activities in the high school with the other teenage girls to inspire them to be successful women. We will celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8 by doing a show on the local radio station to talk about women’s rights and the importance of having successful women in our community. For the following weeks on March, we will be doing interviews that will be aired on the radio featuring a strong woman in our own community (teacher, president of women’s club, pharmacist, shop owner) to remind the men and women of our community how valuable women are to the harmony and success to the community.