evaluation

[Hanna Useem]

Hey y'all! 

I hope y'alls travel went well. I was so tired last night. I fell asleep at 6 pm and slept for 12 hours. 

Anyhow, here is the evaluation typed up. If there is a number in parenthesis, that means how many times it was on the evaluation. I hope it all makes sense. If you have any questions, let me know. I am going to give the written evaluations to James to keep safe. 

After reading the evaluations, I would say this camp was a success!! Congrats to all of us! We worked hard and it really paid off.

Hanna

[Cassie Collier]

Hey Guys,

Hanna, first off, thanks for putting together all these evaluations.

Second, we have C$20,000 left over, yikes. (It’s mostly due to Vida Joven charging us less for some stuff, and us not getting the tshirts). I talked to Carol about a few things we could do with the money; some options are 1 – funding any camp follow-up projects that our campers want to implement in their sites, 2 – getting the tshirts after all, 3 – possibly seeing about putting it in a fund for next year (although this one is tricky, technically you’re not supposed to do this). Anyway, I’ll talk to Carol again to see her thoughts, and then I’ll be in touch about it.

Third, here are some of my thoughts on how to make the camp even better next year. (James and Talia, this is all you!!)

1. Split the groups – It would be nice to have the group altogether for a morning keynote speaker, but I think for the subsequent charlas, we can break them into 2 or 3 groups so it’s a more intimate setting.  It would also make some of the charlas shorter and more concise (ex: skit time would be cut in half because there would less groups presenting). 

2. Emergency phone number – Some parents were worried about lack of cell phone service. If we are doing it at Vida Joven next year, there are a few things we could do. One, give the parents an emergency number (or the VJ landline if there is one?) for them to call if anything goes wrong. Another option: Each pueblo will have one parent contact. When we go into Jinotega to buy supplies that Saturday morning, the Volunteer will text each parent contact (can’t be more than 10-ish in total?) to let them know the kids got there safely.

3. Really prepare for the charlas – I thought the charlas were really great, but of course there is always room for improvement. I think next year, we should really try to get lesson plans in way ahead of time, so we as a committee can look at them and give feedback. Maybe even someone on Peace Corps staff could look at them to give suggestions. For example, with me and Noelle’s charla, we dropped the ball with explaining how to set up their “examen vocacional test.” The kids were confused, and all it would have taken were printouts of the test to have made our charla go 10x smoother.

Charlas are the bulk of the camp, and we want to make sure each one is super relevant, interesting, a good length, dynamic, etc. With the entire GUIA committee looking at one another’s lesson plans, we can make sure each one is as best as it can be. 

4. Bring more pens!  - All supplies were in full abundance (thanks Noelle!). I think literally the only thing we didn’t have enough of was pens – easy thing to change for next year.

Cassie

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Cassie Collier
Peace Corps Volunteer, Small Business Development - Nicaragua
collie...@gmail.com

(+505) 8336-8610

[Robyn Singleton]

Hey Cassie, these are great comments.  I'm going to follow up with a few of my own... They're not actually that many:

1.) I think it would be great to involve more Nica counterparts in the session giving.  I think having a Nica help out really strengthens the message, if only because their spanish and cultural knowledge is much better than ours.

2.) Focus more on what happens after camp - how can the girls use the information from camp in their home towns, can they give charlas with their youth groups, can we connect them with a Red de mujeres or adolescentes in which they can participate... 

3.) Maybe we could partner up with a Nicaraguan organization so as to make the idea more sustainable.  This is obviously a little complicated given the regionalism of most Nica org's work, but it might be worth looking into.  I think Grupo Venancia would be a good such organization but there are others based out of Matagalpa and probably Esteli that might be interested in working on this, given that GLOW falls within their estrategias and all that.

Mmm.. I think that's it.  I wrote a piece for Va Pues about the camp, so look for it in the next publication.  Also, I think I'm still uploading my pictures onto dropbox...  Do you all have access to these?  I don't get what's going on.

Robyn

[Gabriel Goffman]

The sustainability stuff is a good idea, but I think it has to be concrete in terms of what we want them to do in site. Are they going to be health/life promoters or do we want them to be more reflective and start a dialogue? 

It would be great if the left over money can be used for the next camp, or in trying to do some follow up stuff with the girls but what would that be specifically. Each person could try to organize something with their travel groups? The rio san juan girls would not be included or Jessica, who is a member of GAD could do something. 

[Gabriel Goffman]

Another thing about the charlas, I think timing is really an issue because no one was really sure how long each would be and with one charla went long it would alter the schedule. I think the next year we have to practice giving the charlas in front of us to make them as potent as possible and fit into the time frame. 

[Angie Kantner]

Hey, here is my input, got a little lengthy...

 

 

The Good:

+  Having spent those days with the girls and after reading the evals it is clear that the girls had a positive experience during GLOW…  We provided them with a safe place to express themselves, ask questions and get true answers, meet new people, and experience freedom to be themselves without the pressure of boys, machista parents/relatives, etc.. They learned to accept and value themselves more, use their voices, break the silence surrounding violence, protect their bodies when they enter into relationships, be strong courageous women…   so basically despite all of the suggestions for improvement that follow, we as a team successfully held Nicaragua’s first camp GLOW.  Good job :)

 

+ The candle ceremony was a really cute idea and a nice way to wrap up (way to go Carol!)

 

+ Good job selecting the nicas who spoke.. Paz and Marlene were great (Marelene’s dynamicas were excellent energy boosters!…  though I think her presentation left the girls a little disoriented..)

 

+ We did a good job improvising when things needed to be changed..

 

+ they really loved the sports/mountain games/canoes.. it made me so happy to see them play without being self-conscious (like so many are in co-ed groups) and get involved without

 

+ for the most part we did a good job interacting with the girls.. enjoyed getting to hang out with the PCVs

 

+ Vida Joven was a great locale.. definitely wouldn’t want to change the place… even if it is cold..

 

 

The not-so good:

-  we got off to a bit of a rough start.. our intro was super low-energy.. need to improve that for next year and try to foster a group bond from the beginning..

 

- timing.. we all needed to keep more of an eye on the time.. we rarely ended on time and the charlas ran super long.. a concise charla with a couple solid activities beats a long one.. attention spans are short.

 

- more FREE TIME/organized recreation…  we really cant expect 14-16yr olds to sit in so many long sessions without giving them free time to move around, play, enjoy the beautiful setting , and also digest/discuss all of the heavy info we were presenting them with

 

- the money deal was a mess.. Collecting the $100c from the girls should have been done when they checked in to make it easier.. Also, we made a mistake in brining the $150c for snacks to camp just to have to make a trip to the city to buy it… it would make much more sense to each buy our part in Matagalpa quick before boarding the Jinotega bus.. oops.

 

- clarify that the girls needed to have 100$c with them PLUS money for transport..  it was on the packing list but most people didn’t understand.. same with bringing warm clothes… suggestions on how to convince people that they will be cold if they don’t come prepared?

 

- more dynamic activities during some sessions… try to have a good balance of talk and activities..

 

- earlier dinner time (most of the girls are from rural areas and eating at 6:30/7 was pretty late.. I think it would have been better tipo 5:30 considering the food was pretty heavy…

 

- better communication/planning about supplies (ie nothing to write with but enough pega to glue each girl to her seat), general organization of the camp (.. we all knew what we were doing for our own sessions,  but we were kind of clueless about the others…)

 

ALSO… I’m here for another year so im really excited to see what GUIA does for 2014.. I think we should aim for January and consider a boy’s camp.  GLOW was a wonderful experience for the girls and I strongly believe in empowering young women.  However, I feel that hoy en dia en Nicaragua young women have more resources/opportunities to learn about empowerment, health, and machismo/violence than young men. 

 

If not this coming year, I hope that GUIA focuses also on the development of young men… this machista society expects them to follow a harmful, ugly stereotype and there are consequences for those who don’t live up to it.. lets not leave out ½ the population..

 

For real change concerning gender relations we need to involve, educate, empower both girls and boys.

[Gabriel Goffman]

in terms of glow vs blow is it possible to do both next year. I feel we want to make glow a yearly tradition, but if we raised a fair amount of money this year could we do a boy's camp as well. 

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[Robyn Singleton]

I really appreciated Angie's comments, and I just have one more of my own:

It was outside of our control that Alison had to leave, and I think we handled the shift fairly well.  However, I think that for next year it would be beneficial to have someone in charge of "communication" - GLOW members could check in with this person regarding what's happening on their end, and this person sends out monthly or bi-weekly emails with information regarding the activities of all the members, so that everyone's aware of what's going on with everyone else.  Because everyone lives in different areas, it's hard meeting up and making sure we're all on the same page, so having this main "Communication" person is helpful.

[Katherine Kongs]

Hey guys so i am going to compile all of the comments and put them in a word document. Then send it to James for next year. If anyone has anything else to add go on and send it!

Also I will write the thank you to donors letter and send it to Cassie. You have the addresses right? 

Kate

[Cassie Collier]

Hey Guys,

Yep, attached are the addresses of the donors. Kate and Hanna, are you guys printing out the pictures/cards? Or do you want one of us to do it and give them to you before you fly home?

Cassie

[noelle london]

Hi ya'll glowers- 

Thanks for starting this thread. I will say, this was a smashing success for the first year. But, I think pulling all our heads together next year will be even better. Sorry this is uber long. Was brainstorming so bear with me.

Turnover was a definite challenge that we had to face as in those originally working on the camp had to leave. I think the transition was handled well but potentially looking at those in committee vs. when will be cosing. 

Communication is going to be a challenge in volunteers all over the country and we all are working on our own things in site. But, I think we should make a conscious effort to keep everyone in loop. Will make our jobs easier.

Focus on introduction to camp. Starting off with a bang. A surprise puzzle/ way for them to figure out their groups. A dinamica like find one girl for each of these things.. has ever eaten a rodent.. i dont know. They seem to like that and gets them intermingling. I have seen at a few events this intro time where everyone is trickling in can be awkward so important to have a lot of options. Cool video- like Girl Effect from youtube in Spanish?

I agree donations and supplies could have been handled better. I was working with the list left to me, but that was made far before actual charlas were designed so we weren't quite sure what to expect. I think aiming for this general goal of $250 would work but maybe checking in to see the real needs before actually making a list. It might be a better idea to have someone that is closer to Managua or a larger city to do this job next year. I think they might have access to more resources like larger librerias and the whole "come back next week" thing doesn't really work when you live so far away from Managua. Yes, more pens. lots more.

Whoever is doing thank yous.. thank you letters for donations should be sent to Universidad de Ciencias Comerciales and INTUR. Anyone else that got donations can think of who should get thank you notes as well.

Better charla preparation. While a lot of the themes are interconnected. I felt like some might have been repetitive and if we only have 3 days basically we could utilize them make most meaningful. I love the idea of one more meeting and actually going through the charlas in front of each other. I think we are all pretty good critics ;) But also making sure we are also not repeating the same things.. like goal setting.

Incorporating more sectors- the health topics are extremely important, but I think we can focus on others as well. Importance of taking care of the environment. Have an English volunteer walk the girls through a kickass girl power song like "I Will Survive" that goes along with a coordinated dance, etc. 

Refocusing on what exactly the goal of the camp is. It is not leadership but how could we describe it in a sentence. Change timing away from leadership camp and differentiate the the two.

Sponsers are a great idea. Orgs like ProMujer?

It would be great to see more emphasized of how this camp would translate back to host communities. A community focus if time for one. What are issues in your community? What is something you have learned that can help to address that issue? What are some steps you can take? Who can help you to reach that.. professionals, other youth, etc.

While I think really ambitious and a good idea for 2 camps.. that is a lot of work for GUIA members. And, it takes us away from work in site. How about focusing on one camp and doing it really well? Maybe when that is down pat start on another. I like the idea of a boys camp. Much more of a challenge in how to address but needed. 

Also, maybe it should be a requirement for all GLOWers to wear mosquito repellent in the weeks leading up to the camp. Say no to Dengue. I really apologize that I was out of commission for a lot of the camp. I hated that I couldn't be more involved, but I really appreciate your understanding.

I'll get a supply list to you this week next week of estimations. Thanks for the Va Pues article Robyn!

Noelle London

Peace Corps Nicaragua

Small Business Development

london...@gmail.com

+505.8701.8521