Helen Storrow Seminar: Thursday

From little things big things grow...

Today was Thoughtful Thursday! We began the day with the Tornado patrol's interactive play, encouraging us to continue with our projects even when we feel challenged, and completely alone. We know that we are not alone - we have the support of everyone in WAGGGS. And even though it might sometimes feel like a small insignificant change that we are making, it is not. We are part of something much bigger: a worldwide movement. Each one of us is 1 in 10 million!

After our thoughtful message we were introduced to the concept of advocacy. We got very involved in a multi-cultural discussion and no one seemed to agree. In the end we came to the conclusion that although the term advocacy may be very hard to define, it is an integral part of WAGGGS and its mission and values. WAGGGS wants to speak out about girls' and young women's rights and we felt one step closer to being able to do so.

After the advocacy session, we had to try to create a statement we would like to be sent out to the world. We all had to prepare a one minute personal message, where we proposed a problem, evidence of this problem, and then explain why we felt the need to take action. The exercise should help us in telling the world which kind of project we are doing and why it's necessary.

Over lunch we were all very excited to escape the seminar room for a few hours, and either hike to the local Woodcarver's workshop or head into Adelboden town. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and we all thoroughly enjoyed the fresh air and spectacular snow-capped peaks - it reminded us all why we really wanted to advocate on behalf of our natural environment.

When evening came around it was time for International Night! It was a great success, and participants shared various dances, foods and cultural traditions. Entertainment ranged from Egyptian, Philippino and Sri Lankan dancing, to Ukranian singing and Swiss cheese fondue! We then proceeded (in a very international fashion) to dance the night away!

Signing out,

A very tired, but happy, Tornado patrol (woooooooo! *and spin*)