Last Thursday, November 16, we held the event “Celebrating Female Leadership” in Adjumani Refugee Settlement (Uganda). And it was wonderful! 

We gathered 30 girls between 10 and 14 years old. They are students of the Elema Primary School, and they were 15 South Sudanese refugee girls and 15 Ugandan girls from the local community. This was done within the framework of the “The Light of Girls” campaign that JRS has been implementing in East Africa with the support of Entreculturas.

 The JRS team spent a whole morning with them. We were accompanied by director of the Sant Mary Asumpta girls’ highschool, Sr. Rebeca, and by the Inspector of Schools in Adjumani, Mme Sunday. These two great women served as an example of leadership and resilience for the girls, who could see themselves reflected in a future of personal and professional development. 

We carried out different activities with the girls to learn through games important values and principles for girls in the world. 

We talked about their right to have a voice (and to use it), through a poem written by a girl in Kenya within the same Girls’ Light campaign, and they recited it out loud. 

We learned about the importance of sisterhood and mutual support between women, through a teamwork game. And we talked about the realization that, despite not being able to avoid encountering obstacles in life (i.e., housework, early pregnancy, harmful traditional practices, etc.), with effort and perseverance we can overcome them, through an obstacle course. 

Before playing the different games, we shared some stories and cautionary tales about empowering girls. 

At the end of the morning, we reflected together on what we had learned and let them go with a smile on our lips and, hopefully, having planted some seeds in them. 

Because the change of society only comes with the change of individuals. And for this, every girl and boy counts.