We are ten million voices singing

Who knows that song? Anyone who was at the Girls' World Forum last year or at Our Cabana a month ago will know it.  It is a beautiful song.  It starts with one person singing 'I am one voice and I am singing.... I am not alone', then it gradually builds up: I am 10 voices, I am one-hundred voices, all the way to 10 million voices.  It's important to set the parameters, otherwise it can last for up to a week. 

We sang this song as part of the reflection which my patrol ran this morning.  We also handed out post-it notes in appropriate shapes, and asked everyone to write something which they are going to bring to this fascinating  week.  We taught, then sang the song (you'll see a photo if we're friends on Facebook), and as we moved through the verses, participants came forward in patrols, and stuck their post-it notes onto a giant arrow, drawn by Celeste, our resident artist, all the way from Bolivia. 

I saw Pip's comment about where we're staying, so I'll answer that before telling you about today.  Anyone who has stayed at one of the world centres - Pax Lodge (UK), Our Chalet (Switzerland), Sangam (India) or Our Cabana (Mexico), will know that they are very definitely a physical place, made up of all sorts of special components which epitomise Guiding and what it is all about.  At the 32nd World Conference, it was resolved to establish a fifth World Centre in Africa.  The idea of this Fifth World Centre is that it is not a specific place  of bricks and mortar, instead, it is a gathering of like-minded people, meeting together to learn, to share, to grow.  The idea is that it moves between different places, be they exisiting training centres, or regular places to stay.  This event is being held at the Nobleza Hotel in Kigali.  Some of us are staying here, and others are staying in another hotel just down the road.  We are all staying in twin rooms, sharing with another participant.  I am sharing with Lyndsey, the other participant from the UK.  The hotel is fine, apart from a lack of water in the shower (!) - TIA.

It is important to  have a World Centre in Africa for several reasons; there is no World Centre in the Africa Region, Africa is important in the history of Guiding,  and there is a need to increase access to opportunities for the many members of the 21 countries in Africa which are part of WAGGGS.  African Guiding has seen huge growth over the past  few years, so it is only right that there should be a World Centre here, and the idea of it being the setting for an extremely important seminar, makes it an ideal situation.  You can read more about the details about the Fifth World Centre pilot here.

So, what did we do today? After our spectacular opening reflection, we moved straight into a session to put this seminar into context.  I still can't quite believe that I am at this incredible event, in Rwanda, this beautiful and lush place.  The climate is great - there was some welcome rain earlier, a blessing in the heat of the day.  Guides du Rwanda is thriving and they have worked extremely hard to make this event happen.  It is a privilege to be part of it, meeting participants from MOs across the world, and talking about how we can bring about change.  We are 10 million voices singing.

WAGGGS' vision is to empower all girls and young women to take action to change the world.  Stop The Violence is the latest campaign, and is the only campaign to focus on violence against girls and young women.  Many campaigns focus on violence against women, but there are specific issues associated with girls, and that is why we are here, to be agents of change in our own organisations.  We are all associated with organisations full of girls and young women, and we have an opportunity to work with them to enable them to stand up and make their voices heard.

Membership development, coupled with developing leaders and trainers is key to all of our organisations, which is something we discussed this morning.  It really is a privilege to work with girls and young women in Guiding, and if you're not involved, then get involved! It doesn't have to take over your life - we always need volunteers to help with admin, fundraising, accounts etc. - if you are not doing any volunteering, think about it.  It can fit into your life if you want it to.  Make time. 

Anyway. 

We then had the official opening ceremony, where all sorts of dignitaries joined us, including a representative of the Minister for Gender, The Minister for Young People, The Minister for Sports and Culture, a local Mayor, the Chief Commissioner of Rwanda, a representative from UNone (UNFPA), the Funding Director for WAGGGS and many others. The moving event included the Rwanda Guide song, energetic entertainment from a local music and dance troupe, a drama by some very small Brownies and a number of meaningful speeches about the relevance of this landmark event.

The Africa Director for WAGGGS, Alphonsine Kabagabo, (who I first met in Belsize Park in 2006 at a meeting about LaSER's South Africa Centenary project) (I just wrote Belize instead of Belsize - beware as they are quite different), spoke, saying that she felt privileged to be a part of Guides du Rwanda. She explained how young women have been involved in organising the logistics of these events and how they are preparing to take the campaign out into the rural areas where girls are particularly affected by violence.

The UN rep who officially opened the seminar said this - 'Violence against women and girls is preventable if everyone is concerned. We will improve gender equality initiatives to prevent gender-based violence. We will fight gender-based violence'. There is a long way to go, and major challenges ahead.

We moved onto a session called Violence and Gender, led by Andrea, the Stop The Violence specialist at WAGGGS.  She explained the background to the campaign.  6 out of 10 girls and young women will experience violence.  This is wrong.  A major consultation was carried out, asking girls and young women what they felt strongly about, and they said 'violence against women and girls'.  So couple this with the statistics, and that summarises the need for the Stop The Violence campaign, which you can read more about here.  Why not add your voice?  National and community campaigns will be launched in 55 countries, by 2015.  In attending this seminar, we are being trained on the Activate programme, meaning that we will be able to deliver the Voices Against Violence programme when we return home to our Member Organisations. 

The Voices Against Violence programe has been piloted and has six stages: start, think, identify, support, speak out, take action.  It can be used with the different age-groups in Guiding, and has been written in age-specific categories to enable appropriate delivery.  You can start having conversations with 'younger years' children about these types of issues.  Brownie-age children can understand the concepts of identity, friendship, feelings and emotions.  They often make very astute comments - which is why they are such an engaging age-group to work with. 

So congratulations if you've made it this far as I'm conscious I'm writing a lot.  But there is so much to say, and I want to share it with you.  So bear with me a bit longer...

In our patrols, we looked at definitions of violence, then compared ours with the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.  We learnt about six of the main types of violence against girls and young women, which range from dating violence, to FGM. 

Read these staggering facts:
- at least 60  million girls are 'missing' from populations due to female infanticide
- worldwide, 140 million girls and young women have experienced FGM
- in the 1994 genocide here in Rwanda (less than 20 years ago), between 250,000 and 500,000 women and girls were raped.  Do you know how many convictions there have been for sexual violence? Guess.  8.  (and no, that's not a typo.  Eight.)

We explored the causes and consequences of violence against women and girls, which are many.  I could write a whole separate blog post about them, which I will do at a later date.

The big factor is gender inequality.  Sometimes girls and women accept the treatment they receive, without realising that it may be abusive.  We watched a video from the UK Home Office, see www.thisisabuse.direct.gov.uk and there are various videos. Worldwide, girls and young women are less likely to be able to access support if they are used to being treated differently because they are female. 

We looked at a series of advertisements, all of which sexualise women and children, yet these have all appeared in mainstream media in various parts of the world.  The objectification of women is wrong.  Hence Girlguiding recently signing up to the No More Page 3 campaign. 

We then started to share the information we have compiled as part of our 'pre-task', where we have studied the VAWG situation in our own countries.  One of the girls said to me, when I started going through my information, 'how can there be violence in UK? It is a developed country?'