Join Marjorie Margolies, president of Women’s Campaign International (WCI), at her home for an evening dedicated to learning about WCI’s program for adolescent girls in Philadelphia, GALS (Global Advocacy and Leadership Series).

When: Monday, September 12, 2011 from 5:30 to 7pm

Where: Marjorie’s home

To encourage civic participation at an early age, WCI facilitates Saturday workshops for high school girls interested in improving their communities. Throughout the program, participants build life-skills in communityleadership, advocacy, global awareness, financial literacy, public speaking and networking.

All guests are welcome, feel free to bring a friend.

Suggested donation $100

For location details and to RSVP, contact Marion at marion@womenscampaigninternational.org

The Help, based on Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel of the same name, is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s. Much of the film focuses on the Civil Rights Movement, not from a broad, national standpoint but from the perspective of the community in a conservative Southern town. The film depicts race relations between several affluent white families and “the help”—their African-American housekeepers and nannies.

Emma Stone stars as the protagonist, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, with Allison Janney portraying her mother, Charlotte. Skeeter rebels against her hometown’s traditional society when she returns after college, the only one from her group of friends to graduate rather than leave to be married. She begins to generate controversy in an attempt to stop the pervasive inequality in Jackson, facing opposition to both her message and her attempt to establish a career for herself outside of the home.

While largely a film about the American Civil Rights Movement and race relations, The Help also demonstrates the courage of many of its characters, from the women who speak out against oppression to those who choose to take a different path than that which society has prescribed for them. The film will be released throughout the United States on August 10^th.

Conquering challenges and becoming who you want to be is the theme of this year’s Pennsylvania Conference for Women.  The Conference, taking place on October 25, 2011 draws thousands of women from across the state and surrounding area who seek connection, information, and inspiration.  Features of the conference include nationally recognized speakers, workshops, panel discussions, and access to the Career Pavilion.

Exciting new additions to this year’s conference include Local Leader “Meet Ups” which will give participants the chance to interact with local corporate, community and civic leaders and Expert Exchange Sessions which offer the opportunity to meet with experts in smaller settings to discuss career or personal development topics.  The Young Women’s Program will continue this year, providing junior and senior high school girls the  opportunity to attend and participate in specially designed seminars.

Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to network with other women, learn and engage with a larger professional community.  The conference is open to professionals, job seekers, students and anyone seeking information and inspiration. Register now for the Conference!

Junior Advocacy Coaches Ama, Alexis, and Zykeeya smile as they receive their certificates.

WCI Executive Director Kerri Kennedy spoke briefly about WCI’s impact around the world, followed by GALS Program Director Karen Doyle, who thanked the many people who had made the program possible and then described the goals of the program. After an introduction by Program Officer Nickie Séne, Representative Lowery Brown  inspired the audience with her analogy of “playing the cards you were dealt.” She asked the girls if they had ever played UNO. She explained that when you are dealt a hand of cards and it is not what you had hoped for, you have to play it anyway. You put on your game face, you never let them see you flinch, and you do the best that you can with the hand that you were dealt. She said that in her life, she had not always had “the cards that she would have liked” but she put on her game face, and moved forward to the best of her abilities. This perseverance has brought her to her current position. This analogy clearly had a positive impact on the girls.

At the end of her speech, Representative Lowery Brown introduced Miss Black Pennsylvania, who was wearing her crown and her sash! The girls were invited to have a group picture taken with both the Representative and the pageant winner.

It was then time for the GALS’ participants to present their advocacy campaigns! The girls had been working on their campaigns since February and strived to be agents of change concerning the issues of discrimination, relationship abuse and self esteem/self acceptance. This year, media was an important component in their campaigns. Their messages were spread through both hi-tech and more traditional means, including facebook pages, videos, workshop presentations and even bracelet dissemination!

The conference concluded with the girls receiving certificates confirming that they had completed the requirements of the GALS program. Several of the Freire students indicated that they would like to return to the program next year as they had more they would like to achieve in their role as advocates!

Following the production of Ruined this past Wednesday by the Philadelphia Theatre Company, WCI’s Executive Director Kerri Kennedy was invited to serve as a guest panelist in an audience discussion based on the issues touched upon by the play, including women in conflict zones and the role of women in post-conflict reconstruction.

The play Ruined is based on interviews conducted by its author, Lynn Nottage, with female refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who fled to Uganda during the country’s prolonged conflict. The production revolves around the lives of the employees and customers of a brothel located in the DRC, which Nottage describes as a country “where the unspeakable has become commonplace.”

The DRC has been in a state of prolonged conflict for roughly 15 years, with over 5.4 million deaths reported during that time. The causes of the conflict are complex, as it began with the influx of both refugees and rebel forces into the DRC in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. This instability was furthered by a separate conflict in Uganda and the popularity of informal militias in the region, where employment opportunities are minimal and militias often turn to looting. These conflicts have only been exacerbated by the rich resources of the DRC, which include diamonds, gold, coltan, and cobalt. The negligible judicial institutions in the DRC are unable to enforce property rights, resulting in continued conflict between militia groups, some supported by sympathetic foreign governments, over control of mining operations.

Based on her extensive experience in conflict zones around the world, Kerri Kennedy felt that the play’s portrayal of the DRC was “a very accurate illustration of the hardship, hope, and complexities of life in a protracted conflict zone.” The conflict in the Congo has been exceptionally brutal due to the pervasiveness of sexual violence, particularly the use of rape as a weapon of war. The United Nations reported that over 200,000 women have been raped thus far in the Congo, with a recent study declaring that over 48 women are still raped every hour. The empowerment of women is a crucial part of rebuilding a post-conflict society, not only because women are often left alone to support their families following the death of their spouses in conflict, but also because of the physical and psychological suffering caused by the use of sexual violence throughout the conflicts.

Ruined does an incredible job of humanizing the statistics and descriptions of conflict zones that are so often quoted in newspaper articles and scholarly journals but do little to make their readers understand the reality of life for the people of the Congo today. The play has increased awareness of the DRC’s conflict and of the use of rape as a weapon, but this awareness is merely a first step in the process of bringing an end to the violence and suffering inflicted on women in the region.

Kerri recommended that audience members (and interested readers!) who want to get involved in the process to bring peace to the Congo and empower the women of the region contact representatives both in government, such as your U.S. Representative, and in the industries that continue to purchase conflict minerals from the region. Most of the DRC’s resources are smuggled across its borders and exported from a neighboring country, making it difficult to trace their origins and leaving the Congo’s economy stagnant and its residents in desperate poverty. Experts have recommended that these industries, such as cell phone manufacturers, formulate their own versions of the Kimberly Process, which certifies diamonds as “conflict-free” and was brought about to stop the trafficking of blood diamonds from Sierra Leone, to certify the minerals in their supply-chains as conflict-free. More information on conflict minerals in the DRC can be found on War Child’s website.

WCI does not currently operate any programs based directly in the DRC, but our awareness campaign to stop gender-based violence in Liberia following its 14-year civil conflict touches on many of the same issues. Check out our Liberia page to learn more about these initiatives. If you’re interested in getting involved in an advocacy campaign related to the Congo, check out Breaking the Silence.

If you’d like to see Ruined yourself, it will be playing now through June 12^th at the Philadelphia Theatre Company; tickets are available on their website.

Monica stood up to introduce herself. She said, “Uh, um, I’m really sorry that I am not prepared, and like, I hope you can follow along…” She trudged through a painfully delivered speech for the next five minutes. The girls squirmed in their seats, not knowing if she was genuinely having a hard time delivering her speech or whether they were expected to intervene.

When she was finished, Monica and Nickie, another WCI Program Officer, asked the girls what they thought. What did Monica do well? What could she have done better? Thus began the day’s discussions of effective communication and public speaking skills.

We have all been there: excessive use of fillers, poor eye contact, twisting hands, talking too fast, the gamut. These are, as the girls learned, not effective ways to engage an audience. Through Monica’s role-playing activity, the girls learned the ABC’s of public speaking and then put these skills to use in creating campaign videos with Flip cams.

For example, in this video Shayna discusses her group’s campaign against abuse:

Guest teaching artist, Laura Deutch, shared videos created by other teens as good examples of sincere, simple messages conveyed through media. The GALS enthusiastically critiqued the videos, learning from the mistakes and successes of the other teens’ work. They not only critiqued the content of the videos, but also the technical components. Laura led the girls in understanding how to hold a camera, how to position a subject in a frame, how to compose a shot, and what to look for when selecting a background.

Now it was time for the girls to put their “messages in motion”! After working in their groups to create a concise and convincing campaign message, the girls, with Laura’s expertise and their public speaking tips, used the Flip cams to create eye-catching and professional campaign message videos. See for yourself!

In this example, GALS student Lex presents her team’s campaign to promote healthy self-esteem among middle-school aged youth.

Two of our Junior Coaches, Ama and Alexis, GALS’ participants returning from last year, also produced an amazing video of a “fictitious” campaign. When Alexis joined the program last year, she characterized herself as shy, however as depicted in this video, she has found her voice!

Although all the girls had little time to prepare, the videos highlighted their poise and willingness to get up and speak publicly about their campaigns.

After all of the groups created their videos, it was time for peer-to-peer feedback! The girls gathered and watched the campaign messages their peers had made. A critique workshop can be scary, but the trust that has been built among the GALS helped to make this feedback session an incredibly enriching and effective tool. The GALS watched each other’s videos and filled out these forms, anonymously, to provide feedback to their peers. They also provided positive verbal feedback.

After all this hard work, it was time for lunch. The girls were very fortunate to have The Links, Incorporated provide a healthy lunch, as part of a program that day at International House to raise awareness about healthy living. GALS hopes to partner with the Links in the future, as helping young women to become leaders is a goal of both organizations.

As the girls continue implementing their advocacy campaigns, social media will be a crucial component. Facebook, YouTube and blogging will carry the GALS’ messages to a larger audience. Many of the groups have in fact already created Facebook pages on which to post updates about their campaigns!

The GALS program is evolving to use social media very effectively this year, as is shown by these messages. As digital and social media grows, so too does the use of it in our program!

– Written by Karen Doyle

The U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau hosts an half-day event for young women and girls, on Monday April 25, 2011, at the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia.

Karen Doyle presents WCI's Youth Leadership Program

WCI President and Founder Marjorie Margolies will speak. Other invited  women leaders include:

• Sara Manzano-Díaz, Director of the U.S Department of Labor Women’s Bureau
• Elva Bankins, Executive Vice President Corporate Services for OI Partners
• Gennifer Brooke Miller, Founder of Healthy Textures LLC
• Helen Gym, Founder of parents United for Public Education
• Stephanie Gambone, Vice President, Business Partnerships for the Philadelphia Youth Network
• Lydia Hernández Vėlez, Deputy Managing Director for Aging City of Philadelphia
• Amaris Hernandez, Vice President of the National Conference of Puerto Rican Women
• Vicki Curtis, Disabled Veterans Outreach Specialist for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor

The event is free and open to the public, but guests are encouraged to bring along a young, female mentee between the ages of 14 and 22.

Register here.

The film screened at the Community College of Philadelphia to a nearly full house. After the film, ITVS hosted a panel discussion with the film’s co-director, Beth Davenport; Congolese-born professor at CCP, Dr. Dulivanette Muyala Onema, and with Dennis Mulligan of the Nationalities Service Center, a refugee resettlement organization here in Philadelphia.

From Left: Dennis Mulligan, Beth Davenport, Dr. Dulivanette Onema

Audience members gravitated towards questions about violence against women. People were so incensed by the violence described in the film, that they consistently asked, “What can we do? What can be done?”

Dr. Onema echoed this sentiment but pointed out that if we want to help women, we must first and foremost extinguish the root of evil, war. She recounted that in her days as a graduate student at Indiana University, Bloomington, she and her peers vigilantly demonstrated against the apartheid regime in South Africa. But, she emphasized that people are not raising their voices in loud number for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And why not? Neither the film, the filmmakers, nor any of us in the audience had an answer.

But the panel did start to name steps that we could each take to help bring about an end to the war or at least to mitigate some of the horrors and sufferings created by it. For any of you asking yourselves what can be done, here are suggestions from the panel:

• Contact your local legislator to ask them to fight for women’s equality or foreign aid
• Contact your legislator to let them know you support the International Violence Against Women Act
• Support Mapendo New Horizons, the organization co-founded by the film’s protagonist, Rose Mapendo
  • Mapendo New Horizons is always looking for: in-kind support, supplies sent to countries in need, monetary donations, and volunteer hours
• Volunteer with a refugee resettlement program like Nationalities Service Center
• Dennis Mulligan remarked that NSC has plenty of volunteer opportunities all of the time and that there are other resettlement support programs in the Philadelphia area also in need of volunteers, such as Lutheran Children and Family Services.
• Seek information about conflict minerals. The Enough Project is a great resource and ally in the battle against conflict mineral mining in Congo.
• Each panelist agreed that the first step in healing is awareness. Thus, they suggested hosting a group screening of the film in your own home!

In case you missed it at a Community Cinema screening near you, PBS stations around the country are airing the film. In Philadelphia, Pushing the Elephant will air on March 29 at 10 PM on WHYY.

You can download discussion guides from the ITVS webpage to help facilitate discussion with your group after the screening.

We wanted to share this list with you not only to build support for Congolese women’s struggles, but because these action steps can be applied to any issue that grabs at your heart and inspires you to fight for change. Contacting legislators, like WCI staff did during their time at the CARE conference last week, or volunteering with organizations, getting yourself informed and sharing this information among your community, are all steps that we can take every day to help create a more peaceful, more just, and more gender equitable world.

Paula Introduces Herself

On Saturday February 26, the GALS were visited by girls’ leadership coach, Paula Singer. Paula joined the group activities, listened to the girls’ brainstorming, and shared her reflections with our WCI staff. Here’s what she had to say:

“When I walked into the room, I was really impressed with the many bright faces of the young women who were assembled there. Considering that it was 10 AM on a Saturday morning, these young ladies looked alert and ready to work and engage with each other and their coaches on important social advocacy projects!

I had the privilege of sitting in on the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. group. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. stands for:
Real
Empowerment
Self-Esteem
Potential
Enthusiasm
Confidence
Tenacious

As their acronym suggests, the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. campaign focuses on issues of self-esteem. One  group member, Lex, put it this way: Some people have too low self-esteem. And some people – they know who they are – have too high! We wanna help people to balance their self-esteem so it’s in a healthy place.

‘What age group do you think you need to target?’ I asked them. Not surprisingly, they had already thought about this question. Each of them eagerly vied for a chance to explain their decision to focus on middle-school populations. As I’ve seen in my own work, middle school is one of the toughest times for girls and boys. It’s in middle school that youth are faced with the task of forging an identity in the midst of so many pressures and rapid changes – physically, socially and emotionally. Thus, R.E.S.P.E.C.T is wise to target this group of students.

The team’s ‘Junior Advocacy Coach’ (a student who participated in the advocacy program in her sophomore year and decided to stay on to help newcomers), Alexis, recounted to R.E.S.P.E.C.T. her experiences trying to get people excited about her group’s campaign the year before. She’d learned that the best way to get people involved is to do something interactive. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. followed that advice and began brainstorming fun activities to use when meeting with middle-schoolers. Some of their brainstorming led to activities with beaded bracelets and even better, home-made cookies!

GALS at work!

As I continued to observe, I noticed that everyone listened respectfully to each person who spoke, and it felt like a real group effort. I loved the way each young woman at the table volunteered for assignments based on her strengths and talents.

This experience reminded me of a quote I read recently about the Women in the World Summit, to be held in New York next week. Diane von Furstenberg, a pioneering fashion designer and Summit participant, said: ‘I am forever impressed by the strength of women, but channeling that strength is crucial. Getting together and inspiring one another is the most valuable thing we can do for the future.’

I’m glad to have been able to witness groups of young women inspiring one another. And I look forward to continuing my work with the GALS teams as I visit their after-school club at Freire Charter School later in the month.”

Paula Leads a Team-Building Workshop in a Summer Program

Simone was the first to speak. She rose slowly out of her seat to introduce herself. It was, after all, 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday and she is a teenager, a time in life where sleeping in on a Saturday is sacred.

Simone, deep in thought

In eloquent and compelling language, she told the audience about how tired she was that morning. About how much she wanted to keep sleeping. How easy it would have been to keep sleeping. But, she said, “I had to ask myself, ‘Am I committed?’” She thought hard about it. Because, as she noted, you have to be committed in order to roll yourself out of bed at 7 AM on a Saturday to get to the workshop on time. And now, she was here. Because, she concluded, “I AM committed. I’m committed, and if I want to make a change in the world, it has to start now.”

Thus began WCI’s second-annual leadership institute for young girls in Philadelphia, our Global Awareness and Leadership Series (GALS). With Simone’s voice ringing in our ears, the young, female students from Freire Charter School sat upright in their seats, took detailed notes through Executive Director Kerri Kennedy’s presentation on women’s issues around the world, asked poignant questions, and dove in to their work towards change.

Over the next four months, these girls will work in groups to identify issues in their communities that need attention and possibly change. From here, the students will craft advocacy campaigns to address these issues. These campaigns can include a host of activities and interventions, including producing short PSAs, making presentations that they can share with local schools, creating buttons and other tools to raise awareness about their issues, and whatever else their creative minds devise and implement. Here is an example of such a campaign created in the first year of GALS, 2010:

Throughout this important program, the students will be exposed to leaders from all walks of life, people who have struggled to make change, who are pioneers in their field, and who are experimenting with new methods of engagement. Our hope is that in these discussions, the GALS students will connect with the leadership skills they already possess but have not yet learned to name. That is, we hope they will each be able to look at themselves and say with confidence that yes, they are committed. And yes, they can and have made a change.