Things to do with your money

Before you buy that Fantastic Four 2 ticket (or whatever you Americans are doing these days), take a moment to think about whether your $10 might be more appreciated by 90 Georgian girls, aged 11-13. I can think specifically of three of you who just decided you'd rather see the movie, but for the rest of you...

SELF Camp-- Self-Esteem and Leadership through Fitness

In Georgia, girls in the villages (and sometimes in general) are discouraged from doing sports or exercising, since it's something more associated with boys. Also, there's a lot of health misinformation that they're subjected to-- i.e. water makes you fat, drinking water after exercise hurts your heart, etc-- that promotes unhealthy living. To try and combat this a little, several Peace Corps volunteers (yours truly included) are working together with 12 sporty Georgian women to put on three regional camps, 3 days and 2 nights, for young Georgian girls. We'll have guest speakers, like doctors from international NGOs, come to speak with them about health issues, and in addition to learning about female athletes in Georgia and abroad, the girls will also spend a good portion of each day playing sports and learning new sports techniques-- for example, at one camp they'll learn soccer techniques and practice them as a group, but they'll also do individual exercises like Pilates and taekwondo (guess who teaches the latter?).

We gave most of the applications to girls from small villages and towns, who almost never have the opportunity to leave their homes without family members. As they are approaching times of many changes, as the euphemism goes, we think this is a very important age to begin to tackle not only issues of health and fitness, but also self-esteem and leadership roles for girls. We want to encourage them to create sports clubs in their own towns, and to take what they learned at camp back to their homes and share it with their friends. We want them to feel unashamed when they play soccer in the local stadiums, and we want them to be able to go running without being told that it's shameful.

And what is a pitch without an internet link? Our grant is online at the following link: https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=242-033®ion=europe and you can click on that page to donate (any amount!). All donations are tax-deductible, too. Most of the money will go toward making the camp free for the girls-- free lodging, food, and transportation-- and some will go toward purchasing supplies like soccer balls and air pumps.

Anyway, if you have any questions about SELF camp, please post them here or (if you know my email) email me. We're hoping to raise this money by August so we can hold the camp in September before school starts, so if you're interested, please click away! In fact, here it is again for your viewing convenience...

https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=242-033®ion=europe