LaToya ♥ Being a Girl (and Girl to Girl is an amazing initiative!)

LaToya Lane is an activist in IPPF member association in Barbados, and recently - with the help of internets and many people who though that her ideas are worthwhile - have got the support to launch an innovative and much needed initiative that brings together business, agriculture and empowerment for young girls and women.

My Name is LaToya Lane and I enjoy reading, taking new courses, and listening to podcasts on business.

How did you start your work?

Its funny that you say work, because many people do not see volunteer as real work. I began my work with my local family planning association at the age of 17. I must say that when I began I never thought that it would have assisted me with such personal and professional growth. I have been able to move from the President of that association's youth arm (Youth Advocacy Movement Barbados) to Third Vice President on the Barbados Family Planning’s board of directors. I love working in the area of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and I am at my best when I am delivering information that could enrich someone else's life.

What makes you continue? Why are you still doing it?

I have come to realize that my impact or my reach may not be as large as I want it to be, but having the ability to assist people in making moves to change their behaviors one person at a time still counts for something. It is that ability to impact at least one person that motivates me now, the small changes I can help people make, as these will hopefully snowball into bigger life changes.

What is this your endeavor of yours "Girl to Girl" and what impact will it have?

Girl to Girl is a personal development program for young girls and women using agri­business as a uniting component. Girl to Girl will take 14­20 young women from across the island of Barbados, training them in the area of business, personal development and agriculture. It will allow these women, most who have no experience in farming, to grow a percentage of crop for their families/communities and the remainder will be sold in local markets to obtain further capital to sustain the project.

The world would be a better place if everybody would: ­ 
See To Sir, With Love (1967). ­
Listen... ­ lol.. how about if people learned to listen? ­
Read  ­ I WIll Teach You to Be Rich by Remit Sethi.
­Try ­ mentoring.

Before I'm 80, I'd like to write a book and start a youth home. 

Click to read the feature that Barbados Today did for the Girl to Girl project.

Shanique ♥ Being a Girl

While going through the stories about the IPPF's Emerging Leaders' Summit celebrated a year ago, a initiative called The I'm Glad I'm A Girl Foundation caught our attention. It does sound like we have many things in common, so we asked it's founding member, Shanique Campbell to share her story. 

"I am Shanique Campbell.
I enjoy singing, chilling with the people I love and eating... I am a BIG foodie.

If I really stop to think about it, I started as small as 5 years old when I would get the most helpful certificate every year in school. But this really evolved in high school, selling newspapers for my key club that would then be used to purchase much needed items for children's homes all over.
In University, I became a peer leader for the premier leadership program UWILEADS; which had as a part of its function a Social Justice Programe that sought out ways in which both schools and communities could be engaged and people could become empowered.

Upon getting pregnant in 2011, the latter part of my second year of University studies, I had an extremely difficult time adjusting with what was to come not just physically but mentally as well and what started out as just a summer camp has now developed into being so much more. Not only did I give birth to a beautiful baby girl, but I also had the opportunity be a founding member of the only foundation of its kind in Jamaica; The I'm Glad I'm A Girl Foundation.

Our target was to empower girls who are currently in the most defining moments of their lives - puberty - and by way of doing that, not only empower them but help them to empower their friends and families.

I'm Glad I'm A Girl from Amina Doherty on Vimeo.

This foundation has redefined me and has really put into focus what I believe in. It has also afforded me the opportunity to travel and not only speak about Jamaica and what we are doing there but to also share best practices with other regions so that they too can help to uplift this vulnerable group. Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Conflict Resolution, Financial Literacy and Career Planning are all things that are needed to help to cultivate the world that we want to see.
I firmly believe that if you develop a girl, you develop a nation and as such I try to share my passion with anyone who will listen.

What makes me continue is really just a drive to see social justice and gender equality something that is a reality all over the world. I truly love what I do and as a mother, I want to be the change I wish to see in the world so that my daughter will have a different experience than I did.
As an Emerging Leader with IPPF and the youth advisor for the Global Coalition on Women and Aids, I see myself being able to give a voice to the voiceless and to help others find their voice along the way and it is a responsibility that I honor with pride.

The world would be a much better place if everybody would:

• See The Man with One Red Shoe with Tom Hanks and The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Adichie
• Listen to Jill Scott and learn about the fat back...
• Read Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Try zip-lining (it's amazing!) and following their gut 

Before I am 80, I would like to travel to at least 40 countries, to experience the many different cultures and of course try out their food. I would also like to be thought of as a pastry chef by even one person! :) "

Sex on the Map (from RFSU with love)

Sex on the map from RFSU on Vimeo.

"RFSU (Swedish Association for Sexuality Education) is the biggest organization in Sweden working with sexual and reproductive health and rights. The organization was founded 1933 by Elise Ottesen-Jensen and the purpose has always been a rights based approach on sexuality. RFSU is also focusing a lot on pleasure, for people to be able and have a chance to enjoy sex. With that in mind, it's important to work with issues around contraception, the right to abortion, sex education, STI's and so on.
In 2011 RFSU made this film, Sex on the Map, after having years of experience working with sex education in schools. The target group for the film is teenagers, mainly between 13-15 years old. This movie really captures how "the RFSU way" of seeing sex and sexuality. The film is 30 min of sex education. It's about everything from anatomy and the human body to feelings and emotions regarding sex. It focuses on the many types of sex you can have, not only penetrative vaginal sex. Throughout the film, there's a perspective on lust trying to communicate that sex is something good as long as it's consensual. I hope you enjoy it! Feel free to share (: "

Tove Larsson, board member RFSU
If you have any questions, e-mail me at tove.larsson (a) rfsu.se

As an additional material on anatomies and "normalities", the best explication of those things in a correct and understandable we have ever seen: Pussypedia (pdf) and Dicktionary (pdf). 

Sunday is the day when #GirlsDecide: Odeta

#Girlsdecide

We close the #GirlsDecide series with Odeta's* story.

She shares her journey that involves her partner and a decision to not to use a condom... several other decisions will have to be taken afterwards, with the information, support and advice available.

Sunday is the day when #GirlsDecide: Nomvelo

#girlsdecide

We continue our around the world journey to listen to girls from #GirlsDecide initiative from IPPF. Today it's Nomvelo* in Swaziland, telling us about her future dreams, love, doubts about sex and the worries that her HIV status could be a problem in relationship...

Sunday is the day when #GirlsDecide: Hosna

This time we travel to Bangladesh to meet Hosna* and hear about her decision making journey. She tells us about her fears regarding an early marriage and looks for a way to make an autonomous decision about her future, while involving her community and changing some of the customs.

What are Sexual Rights about?

#IPPF #SRHR 

Hello, hello, happy 2013!

Let's be (more) serious this year. Let's be active. Let's be vocal. Let's be brave and angry. And let's start the year with going back to the basics.
So what are Sexual Rights and how do we make sure the people responsible to protect and ensure them actually do so?!

The one video up there is a very short and emotional introduction on what are we talking about.

And a longer version below spells out the Sexual Rights: An IPPF Declaration, step by step.

 

Sunday is the day when #GirlsDecide: Halimah

Halimah's* journey takes us to Indonesia and through the difficulties of taking an informed decision about a pregnancy when your culture and your family might not be entirely with you.

And how comprehensive sexuality education could change the entire picture...

Sunday is the day when #GirlsDecide: Ayla

Here you have second of #GirlsDecide short films on the issues around their sexuality young women face and the work IPPF does day by day to reach the most vulnerable.

This one takes us to Syria and deals with gender based violence, human trafficking, forced sex work... a lot very not-Christmas-like-at-all crimes that keep affecting women around the world. Even one is too many, and unfortunately there are many more that have to survive through it.

It's a dramatization based on a real story.

Sunday is the day when #GirlsDecide: Valeria

Seems incredible but we still haven't shared here the official #GirlsDecide videos. This is one of six shot movies on girls, sexuality, bodily autonomy and youth friendly services across all IPPF regions.

It's a dramatization of a real story of Valeria* looking for support and a youth friendly specialist.

#IPPF60 in numbers

#IPPF60

 

Ever wondered how much does IPPF actually does around the globe? Watch and get educated.
And surprised, and proud.

Happy birthday IPPF!

IPPF ♥ - YSAFE for #IPPF60

#IPPF60 #SRHR

As we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of IPPF, listen to what YSAFE young people have to say about it!

IPPF ♥ for #IPPF60

#IPPF60 #SRHR

  

"IPPF started its journey in 1952, when 8 family planning associations joined together to fight for a cause.

60 years later and the organization is nearly 20 times larger. It works in 172 countries, delivers millions of services all over the world. And drives major changes in global policy.

Together, IPPF’s family makes up the largest sexual and reproductive health and rights organization in the world. None of this would have been achieved without the untiring efforts of IPPF’s staff and volunteers, and our partners in government, civil society and business.

There is so much the Federation can be proud of: it continues to improve the health of millions by contributing to health systems strengthening around the world. It provides services where no government facilities exist, it trains health workers, reacts rapidly in emergency situations and provides expertise that others can learn from."

LET'S EAT CAKE!

This is the cake that IPPF Western Hemisphere Region enjoyed!

IPPF ♥ - YSAFE SC - Thomas

Name: Thomas Goyvaerts, member of the YSAFE Steering Committee.

I enjoy taking challenges, traveling and going out with friends.

I became aware by being active in the social circuit since I was 15. Every opportunity or challenge I faced helped me grow and helped me get more aware about all kinds of social topics that were now to me. For example, right now I'm doing an internship with male sex workers, something I recently learned about and immediately wanted to know some more.

I joined my IPPF Member Association, Sensoa, because to me it was one step up in the whole social staircase; I tend to travel a lot between organizations so to learn and grow even more.

The world would be a better place if everybody would:
   - See a starry midnight sky in the mountains to make you feel small, the view from a high mountaintop to make you feel big and the look of love in that one special person's eyes just so you really know how special you are. If you can do this and be happy with yourself, you can face any storm.
  - Listen Everybody's free to wear sunscreen by Baz Luhrman.
  - Read the stuff you wrote when you were young; love letters, diaries, school reports, cards, letters... So you can see how you've grown, see what possibilities you had but didn't know about and realize that you still have so many possibilities right now that you don't know about.
  - Try many new directions, and if they don't turn out to be like you wanted then at least you made one step in the right direction.

Before I'm 80 I want to have traveled a lot, I want to be able to say that I found true love (even if I lost it by then) & I want to be proud of who I am and stick by it for the rest of my life.

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Kinsey (2004)

A shout-out to our dedication to comprehensive sexuality education, here we go with a feature film about Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956), the entomologist turned sexologist that opened eyes in USA regarding what people do with their sexualities and the great diversity that exists in human sexual behavior (yes, even in places where sex is claimed to be sinful and desire - always heterosexual!).

Kinsey (2004, Bill Condon) establishes a link between personal struggles and what becomes a vocation to a man who changed his scientific interest from gall wasps to human sexual behavior in the USA of 1940's and 1950's. 

A reminder that the work of an activist / expert / researcher might not be all that rosy, especially if it's something new, even revolutionary that she is doing.
And that - despite oppositions and people afraid to stand with you - it is worth to follow what you (and the Scientific Method) find to be the right thing to do!

I ♥ Being a Girl people, meet the press: Luīze ♥ Being a Girl

We're going back to our roots, both I ♥ Being a Girl and IPPF wise, and exploring our own experiences. And you deserve to meet the people behind, anyways.
So, here it goes!

 

Name: Luīze Ratniece, @_uize

Things I enjoy doing:
  - Reading feminist literature and blogs,
  - Cooking (vegan), or just eating some awesome nom-noms somebody else has made,
  - Jotting down ideas while sitting in a coffee-shop or library (yes, much love for libraries).

My major breakthrough that switched my interest towards gender issues and opened my eyes literally overnight when I was 13 on 14 were two German books (by a weird coincidence): Ute Ehrhardt's Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go Even Farther and Sabine Werz's Best Friends, Best Enemies (the translations being my Latvian to English translations of titles I knew them by). These were fun popular books for somebody not really introduced to any feminist consciousness yet. Nevertheless, they raised the basic awareness about the existing gender norms, barriers, inequalities and told me that I am allowed to ignore what people expect from me as from a girl if I please so. And that's what I've been trying to do since that.

The world would be a better place if everyone would:
  - Watch the movie Shortbus (2006), challenging the heteronormativity and filling the world with sex positivity.
  - Listen some old jazz. Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Blossom Dearie, Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt can improve everybody and everything. Especially if you take the very dependent and misogynist lyrics with a pinch of salt.
  - Read two novels by Douglas Coupland, Generation X (1991) and Generation A (2009) to understand how weird the world was before internet and how much weirder it's getting.

Before I'm 80, I want to earn a PhD (a senior teaching position would be cool, too), speak decent French and take a bath full of yoghurt.

I ♥ Being a Girl people, meet the press: Magnhild ♥ Being a Girl

We're going back to our roots, both I ♥ Being a Girl and IPPF wise, and exploring our own experiences. And you deserve to meet the people behind, anyways.
So, here it goes!

Name: Magnhild Bogseth (aka Mag, Maga, Aymara, Misa, Mags or M), @maggsis

Things I enjoy doing:
  - Learning languages by talking to people at the street,
  - Debating world problems with smart people who can provoke and produce new ideas and visions,
  - Getting to know the world through traveling, eating new food and reading books

I became aware of the importance of comprehensive and reality based sexual education when I as an exchange student in high school received sexual education as a cartoon show, where the girl ended up with going to hell because she had sex with her boyfriend after drinking a beer.

The world would be a better place if everyone would:
  - Watch the movie Pay it Forward (2000) and actually do it in real life. And watch Milk (2008), and Pippi Longstocking (1969), of course!
  - Listen to Everybody’s Free by Quindon Tarver and follow his advice.
  - Read the biography of Martin Luther King and get inspired.

Before I’m 80 I want to speak at least 6 languages, be relatively good at surfing and have made the wonderful persons I have in my life happy in one way or another.

Ensuring SRHR = an asset, again

 An another take on the issue of girls and development, mentioning I ♥ Being a Girl:

"There is consensus that girls are central to development. Yet, girls continue to bear the brunt of poverty and ill-health, including maternal mortality, unsafe abortion and HIV. Issues relating to girls’ sexuality and their sexual and reproductive rights remain largely neglected.

According to the World Health Organization, some 16 million girls between 15 and 19 and two million girls under the age of 15 give birth each year. For them, complications of pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death. Approximately 82 million girls in developing countries will be married before their 18th birthday. This will disrupt their education, even though women with more years of schooling have better maternal health, fewer and healthier children and greater economic opportunities. Biologically, girls’ health can be more vulnerable than men’s. Of particular concern are the dramatic increases in HIV infection among young women, who now make up 60% of the 15 to 24 year olds living with HIV. Girls are also exposed to various forms of violence from harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation and the growing problem of sex trafficking to early and forced marriage.

Disparities in the way girls and boys are raised and treated are at the root of poor sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and development challenges. For boys, adolescence can mean new freedoms and greater participation in community life. Girls, however, may face the opposite: restrictions in their access to choices, education, services and support. Traditional gender roles give girls little say about their own hopes and dreams. Yet we know it is possible to take effective practical action that enables girls to tackle gender inequality and ill-health and to fulfill their potential.

The Girls Decide initiative and the project I ♥ Being a Girl are a step toward this. Girls Decide aims to ensure that girls have access, as a human right imperative, to life-saving SRH services and information. I ♥ Being a Girl, recently winner of a World Summit Youth Award, promotes a positive approach to the sexuality of young women through online tools.

IPPF/WHR also invests in services and programs targeting girls. CIES, our local partner in Bolivia, offers medical, psychological, and social care, while ensuring confidential and quality SRH services to young people. In 2011, over 101,270 consultations were undertaken. Sustained leadership is required to ensure that girls are recognised rights-holders. Policymakers can help transform lives of girls by supporting evidence-based research that reflect realities of girls’ sexual and reproductive lives; investing in youth-friendly services and programs; guaranteeing access to comprehensive sexuality education; and creating supportive legal and policy frameworks and social norms. The benefits of investing in girls are transformational – for their own lives and for their families, communities, and countries.

Empowering girls so they can make healthy choices not only boosts economic growth, but are also essential to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Let’s give them greater choice and control over decisions that affect their sexual and reproductive lives and help break the cycle of poverty and inequality for the next generation. "

Investing in Girls is Essential to Ending Global Poverty 

Fiona Salter & Elena D’Urzo*

* Fiona Salter is the press officer at IPPF Central Office. Elena D’Urzo is the Advocacy Officer at IPPF European Network. Originally published by Girls' Rights Gazette. Article found in the blog of IPPF WHR.

IAC'12 I [Heart] Being a Girl session (THGS12) presentations

Finally, here are the presentations from the session we had at the International AIDS Conference.

As Jessie says in her report:

"Tea Parties are casual safe spaces for girls where anyone who is a feminist can come met up and speak up about their frustrations but also share their hopes for the future. The social pressures put on girls are often hypocritical, including how media portrays women as sexy and sex figures, but young women are condemned for expressing themselves sexually or wearing revealing clothes, or they’re expected to be working professionals taking care of themselves (even with a considerable stagnant pay gap), but once you have a family, you are “supposed” to become domestic and support your husband. Gender is a social construct that does not have to follow your biology. Your gender and how you express yourself should not be dictated by societal norms that are often oppressive. In the words of Leynah Gbowee, “It is time for women to stop being politely angry.” There are various forms of resistance to the prejudice of “being a girl” and support for young women looking to make a difference all over the world. In some rural parts, girls learn how to make reusable menstrual pads so that they can continually go to school, and have their privacy. We should have open discussions about questioning gender stereotyping and combat prejudice social norms, like the pay gap. Places like the Philippines are extremely strict when it comes to reproductive health especially for  women, and the results are harrowing; there are half a million unsafe abortions a year and cervical cancer is one of the top killers in the country. When women and more girls have a stronger and unified voice in civil society, they can start to change those societal norms."

IAC'12 IHBG from jauatkales

(Yes, the videos are not really there. The first one is the movie from the 2012 AIDS Conference that you can find here. And the second one is a surprise coming... for now we can say that it was made with a lot of help from all our beloved people in HERA, and that it's amazing!)

IHBG at IAC'12 Best Practice Nepal from jauatkales

(And, yes, obviously, this is the example of the simple fact that talking about and exploring sexualities, pleasure, taboos, barriers... well, you know, the empowerment stuff can be positive and can be - at the same time - very local and very universal indeed. Thank you so much, Shubha, for sharing this experience with us!)

I ♥ Being a Girl Tea party !!!

Dear friends,

Because we had such a blast at our own I♥BG tea party at the Regional Council, we would like to invite you to organize your own. So here it is, our official invitation:

We, YSAFE, would like to invite you to participate in the “I ♥ being a girl” and to encourage you to organize your own IHBG Tea parties where you could spark positive discussion around a gender transformative approach, girl empowerment, as well as a broad range of SRHR related discussion topics to help lead the discussions, including discussion on sex and pregnancy.

Before the Tea party, please see the „I ♥ Being a Girl movie", our Youtube fanpage, and explore the blog. We are sure it will give you some good ideas or raise a good discussion.

If you want to organise your own event, please contact me, Renata, at this email address renata.daunoraviciute@gmail.com . I will send you everything you need to know about organising your own tea-party and I can answer any questions you may have.

We would be grateful if you could let us know who will be contact person for your I ♥ Being a Girl Tea party, and when are you planning to make it. Special surprises are waiting for those who decides to support the project and get involved.

Hope to hear from you very soon!

Renata