By: Akeena Rosalie Siladan
It is with great pride and honor to represent the Girl Scouts of the Philippines to the Juliette Low Seminar in the sunny atolls of Maldives.
The Juliette Low Seminar is a Seminar is a leadership seminar by the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) since 1932 and has changed the lives of many young women. This year’s seminar is piloting a new approach of not only changing 60 lives but 500 more participants in 20 locations across the world!
The seminar was held in November 14-20 simultaneously in these hub locations, giving participants at each hub location a chance to connect across borders both face to face and through technology. This year’s theme is #LeadOutLoud where we tackled gender barriers towards leadership and Leading out Loud is not only shouting but leading through actions.
The Girl Scouts of the Philippines sent its “Magic 8” participants, and a facilitator to Maldives, USA, Tanzania, Poland, UK, and Thailand. I and Justine Danielle Bautista from Mandaluyong City Council was sent to Maldives.
A lot of people would ask me where is Maldives? It is country composed of atolls and islands located south of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean. No matter how small the country is, Maldivians welcomed us with open arms, and their hospitality towards us made us felt like were home away from home.
The night before the event, we gathered around the conference hall, met the participants and facilitators Susan Campbell from Australia, Isabella Namosuke from Uganda, Joey Cham from Hongkong, Christiane Rhouhana from Lebanon, Rashee and Fathun from Maldives. During this night, we found out that there was a total of 33 participants from 19 countries from the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
In the opening ceremony, we wore our Scouting/Guiding uniform. From the Sari-like uniform of Sri Lanka Girl Guides, the white sleeve blouse and long blue skirt of Myanmar Girl Guides Association, and the Abaya and Hijab uniforms of Oman, Malaysia, and Maldives Girl Guides, it was an amazing sight to see!
We received the symbolic Guiding/Scouting flame from Thailand hub via video chat, and eventually passed it to India. It was also in this ceremony that we expressed our thanks as they gave us the opportunity to speak in our language.
As the seminar has started, we explored our leadership as we find the leadership within ourselves. We learned the difference between, a leader, leadership and leading. We also learned the WAGGGS Leadership Model were leadership was approached as practices. It also stressed that leadership is for everyone who practices leadership. During the seminar, we had good conversations with other countries on issues of Gender Equality, and good practices they have on the said topic and on their Member Organizations.
We had a chance to have community connections with Parley Maldives, an NGO promoting cleaner oceans as they recycle ocean plastic and turn it into textiles which can be used for garments. On this community connection, they had given us the chance to snorkel the coral reefs. We learned that Maldives is also facing problems in their reefs such as coral bleaching and too many tourists stepping on the reefs and thus destroying the corals. With these problems, we saw that there is still hope, for some fishes are still living on these reefs. Parley Maldives told us that underneath the destroyed corals are blooming little coral that is still suitable for fishes to live in.
All of us were given the opportunity to showcase our culture, delicacies and our national costume in the Global Village Foari. It is such a delight to see these cultures in one place! In this event, we see that though we may have different beliefs, cultures, ad traditions, we still have one common goal, to change the world.
Since the theme was centered around breaking Gender Barriers towards leadership, we met several “sheroes” who inspired us to dream big, break doors, and build windows to opportunities and to fight for what is right. Some of the sheroes was Ms. Aneesa Ahmed an advocate for anti-violence against women in Maldives, Kate from Tanzania who was raped at an early age and escaped FGM and is now an advocate for menstrual health, and Uza. Mariya Ahmed Didi, the first female defense minister of Maldives.
Using the WAGGGS leadership model, care for the environment and with the inspiration of several sheroes, we were now tasked to formulate the 100 girls project. After the seminar, WAGGGS has tasked us to share the leadership model to 100 girls aged 12 and above and help them become leaders and develop their fullest potential.
Leadership will be shared and practiced by up to 500,000 girls and young women. I plan to implement Project Babae.lan, where girls would be learning the Leadership Model and practice it in a marginalized community of their choice through contextualized games, activities, and reflections.
As the seminar ended, we had a symbolic ceremony of putting sand in a vase which represented the sand of knowledge we have put in the vase that was the Juliette Low Seminar. We were given sand bottles to take a piece of knowledge with us to our homes.
Parting with the participants made me cry a waterfall. I know it is inevitable, but our countries need us to go back and change the world through the 100 girls project to be the best versions of themselves. Parting with these amazing women is such sweet sorrow, but I believe eventually, we would cross paths again.
This seminar made learn, unlearn, and relearn. I gave me a lot of insights, opened my heart and mind, and realized that girls can be what they want to be if given the right tools, opportunities. With the tools, activities and reflections made in this seminar, I, Akeena Rosalie Siladan is now ready to Lead Out Loud from the Philippines, and the world!
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