In these trying times, service was challenging and looked very dfiferent this year. Our service is built on the important partnership we have with Emerge Lanka and the girls at the shelter whom we work with in a variety of activities, which we were unable to continue this year due to the restrictions of the pandemic. As such our service took an educational, awareness-raising appraoch. We have alwyas had social media pages, but we decided to extend our reach to a Girls for Girls website, which all of us created content for to include. These included infographics, posters and important research which could raise awareness on the dsicirmination towards girls globally and specific to Sri Lanka. We also sent in posters and work to the daily bulletin, and the newsletter along with written blurbs, so as to spread the importance of and the purpose of our service. Another effective appraoch we took was to begin educational activities within our service, where we would share resources on current events and also engage in online debates with eachother, where we would create a prompt , (on themes such as abortion rights, access to contraceptives etc.) and create teams and then research on the topic and have a debate as a group. This encouraged us to further our knowledge on the topic and research current events.
Next year, as I will continue to be the service leader, I hope to begin a project of organizing a school event with key guest speakers to speak on the issues of gender inequality in Sri Lanka, so as to educate the OSC community. I hope that this can extend to an online fundraiser so that we can offer support to Emerge Lanka virtually as well. I hope by next year we will be able to interact with the girls F2F or virtually, but regardless I hope to begin an impactful virtual project and fundraiser, and also extend the reach of our website.
An example bulletin post is shown below, where I wrote the blurb:
Our service group is dedicated to empowering women, and battling the everpresent gender inequalities worldwide. We work specifically with girls who have suffered from sexual harassment, through our partnership with Emerge Lanka; an organization that shelters and works with these girls as they go through their court cases, and are reintroduced into the world.
In light of White Ribbon Day, the Girls for Girls Service Group put together a word poem, reading, “Women’s Empowerment is Intertwined With Respect For Human Rights”. We understand that the fight for feminism is the fight for basic equality between the genders. White Ribbon Day symbolizes the idea of ‘men giving up their arms’, and is a global movement of men and boys working to end male violence against women and girls. As a service group we will continue to acknowledge these global campaigns, whilst also creating our own initiatives within our community.
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences -Students demonstrate regular involvement and active engagement in CAS.
Despite the unusual cricumstance we have continued to try create impact and meaning within our service group.
LO6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance – Students are able to identify and demonstrate their understanding of global issues, make responsible decisions, and take appropriate action in response to the issue either locally, nationally or internationally.
Gender inequality is a global issue which we are able to engage with on a local, grassroots level so as to create impact and contribute to the battle against discirmination.