give a little GLOW, watch it grow.

While serving in the US Peace Corps in Namibia, I was privileged enough to become involved with Camp GLOW (Girls and Guys Leading Our World), a worldwide Peace Corps initiative.

In most Peace Corps countries, Camp GLOW focuses specifically on girls' empowerment. In Namibia, Camp GLOW targets both female and male learners with the understanding that females can only be empowered once males also stand up for equality. Established in Namibia in 2000, Camp GLOW Namibia aims to increase equal distribution of leadership opportunities throughout Namibia. To accomplish this, GLOW works to: empower Namibian youth; foster self-esteem, leadership, communication skills, and goal setting; and to increase awareness of healthy lifestyle behaviors.

Camp GLOW 2016 will take place 19 August to 26 August. Camp provides an opportunity for many learners to meet Namibians from different regions and from various tribes. For the first time, many participants are exposed to places outside of their home community. Camp GLOW brings the best and the brightest future leaders together, creating growth opportunities and lasting bonds. It also provides a unique environment supported by nurturing and progressively conscience adults -€“ both Namibian and American. For the past fifteen years, Camp GLOW has enlightened learners, while helping them challenge traditional gender roles, cultural norms and stereotypes.

Camp GLOW is a life-changing experience for each learner. It is an opportunity to cultivate open-minded leaders for a more progressive future. The transformative and lasting effects of Camp Glow transcend far beyond the individual participants and undoubtedly, has a ripple effect that will impact the lives of numerous Namibians.

With the help of donations from local community organizations in Namibia, and donors throughout the USA and abroad, we have nearly reached the goal for this year's camp.

Help us fund this project by donating to Camp GLOW Namibia.

You can also copy the link here: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/donate/project/camp-glow-namibia/

Want to see more? Check out these images from Camp GLOW 2015!

EDIT: Camp GLOW Namibia has reached this year's funding goal for their 2016 August camp in Windhoek! 

Thank you to everyone who helped fund this project! 

drunk, adjacent.

This weekend held host the semi-traumatizing task of choosing campers for a leadership camp. ^[1]  After two years interacting with adolescent kids in a rural community, and having once been one myself, I am sensitive to the importance of getting out of the village. ^[2]

Thankfully, there was a group of five making the final choices. In fact, I could only fully review half. It’s emotionally exhausting to hold such responsibility. And I’ve been a hiring manager, before. Easy in comparison. Adults you can hold to a higher level of responsibility, and therefore, their level of preparedness in an application.

Children… There is such potential. But potential can be tamped out. Left to deteriorate. Trying to triage and advance the applications for learners that could benefit the most… leaves you in desperate need of a drink. Wine to dull, chai to soothe.

^[1] Camp GLOW Namibia. GLOW = Girls and Guys Leading Our World. Apart from my school library, it’s one of the most rewarding parts of my service. And we run into former campers, after the fact. One, who had attended camp a half decade ago, broke into song--an “energizer”—while making an assist on the other side of the counter at FNB.

You never can be sure what will make an impact on a child’s life. But a camp that’s all about empowerment of self, gender equality, advancement of civic responsibility and leadership can’t hurt, right?

^[2] My mother fell for a man over the internet. He lived across the pond. Plus Camp Alexander Mack. Possibly the best camp, ever. (Sorry, Camp Singing Hills.) Plus tramping to antique shows the length and breadth of the North-Eastern US through my early childhood. I got out. Often. A privilege not many children are able to enjoy.

... random tid-bits from the weekend:

“You’re a Peace Corps Volunteer… You are here in the spirit of service, after all.”

                “It’s true. Next time, I’ll just lay down and let him have his way with me.”

“Well… That’s what I would've done.”

                “Now I know... Now I know.”

“You didn’t really talk to us. You were just off to the side with L— and A—, drinking.”    

                “You were a PCT... PCVs aren’t allowed to drink with them.”

“You were drunk.”

                “I wasn't drinking 'with' you.. We were at a party… I was drunk, adjacent.”

open hearts, open wallets.

I live and work in a small village school in central north Namibia in the Kavango region.

We have a population of around 2,500 people, mostly Rukwangali speakers. Most have lived and worked in the village their entire life. Many have not left the village in the better part of a decade.

Imagine living in a village with no car, surrounded by a maze of dirt roads that few cars travel on in which to catch a hike. You live without access to the internet, limited access to newspapers, and hold little first hand knowledge of the world around you, if only because you don't have the funds to travel, or the access to programs or educational events that might have facilitated an opportunity.

Each year, Peace Corps runs a series of programs to address this issue, and provide a series of activities and trainings which include cross-cultural awareness, address gender issues, facilitate leadership training, and AIDS awareness and prevention. These camps and trips run in conjunction with the boys and girls clubs that we, and other Namibian groups facilitate year round. 

One of these camps is called GLOW, which stands for "Guys and Girls Leading Our World."

This August, 85 Namibian learners from all fourteen regions will come together for for a leadership camp in Windhoek.  For most of these learners, it will be the first time they leave their village, the first time they spend time with people from another tribe, the first time they meet people who speak another language, the first time they travel to the nation's capital. 

We are still securing funding for our camp and we could definitely use your help!

Please click through here and donate to GLOW, and give a Namibian boy or girl the chance to tap into their potential, and expand their worldview. 

Every little bit helps – and for those of you who think that 10 dollars isn't very much, please keep in mind that $10 US = 107.5 South African Rand/Namibian Dollars. So, more bang for your buck.