Mark your calendars! Upcoming: Day of the Girl and Men’s Day

October 11^th is internationally celebrated as Día de la Niña (known in English as Day of the Girl or Day of the Girl Child) to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world. It’s only 4 weeks away! Here are some ideas for celebrating in your site…

• Host a movie night with films like Girl Rising or other local variations that show the challenges girls face and their potential to contribute to their communities. (click here for our post on gender consciousmovie nights)
• Perform plays and sing songs about the importance of girls' education at primary schools
• Do a poster contests depicting girls’ life goals or women’s role in work or society
• Hold a sports tournament for girls—volleyball, soccer and kickball are all huge hits.
• Organize mentoring activities for girls, such as Take Our Daughters to Work
• Have a parade, feria or other public event with local women’s groups
• Discuss how gender norms affect the classroom with teachers in your town (more info on this to come!)

Ira Glass Watch Out: An Expert* Radio Interview with the Coordinator of a Nicaraguan LGBTQ Center

Lucy (Health 61) lives in a medium-sized and highly conservative city in the valley of Matagalpa. Lucy participates in a weekly radio program that addresses sexual and reproductive health topics. She and the staff at the station wanted to cover the topic of sexual diversity, or LGBTQ issues, but people who identify as part of the LGBTQ community in their town do not feel comfortable speaking about the topic on the radio. Isabel (Health 61) works with an LGBTQ center in León, a slightly more liberal city, and knows a few outspoken LGBTQ activists who jumped at the chance to bring their cause to a larger audience. Isabel asked Helen Alfaro, the coordinator of a local LGBTQ center, La Casa de Colores, to be interviewed, then sent the recording to Lucy, who broadcasted it on the radio with commentary from Milo, the host of the program, and with commentary from Lucy herself.

We like what you did there, Playboy...

Remember a few months back when we posted a piropo flow-chart about deciding when and when not to respond to street harassment?

Playboy recently published a "Should you catcall her?" flowchart, check it out!

Resource: Camp in a Box

Although it may be hard to believe now, summer vacations aren’t far away for class in Nicaragua. If you’re wondering what kind of project you can do to fill the often empty month of January, check out the Camp in a Box.

These resources were compiled by Peace Corps to guide and support volunteers looking to do all kinds of camps in their communities – environmental education, HIV, gender equality, life skills, TEFL and more!

Click here to see and download the Camp in a Box folder. 

PCV Project: Torneo de Billar

Generally when we work in sexual and reproductive health we focus on youth and pregnant women. This makes sense in that they are a sexually active population, or soon to be sexually active and they are often under-informed or misinformed about their sexual health and rights. Also, they are fairly accessible populations here in Nicaragua, what with casa maternas and high schools in every town.

But there is one very large and powerful population that we too-often forget about, MEN!

They are half of the population after all, and in the machismo culture that exists in Latin America, men often hold most of the power within their relationships, families, and communities. Because of this, working with men can be intimidating and uncomfortable for a lot of volunteers. One idea that came out of the manual Aquí entre nos from Peace Corps Honduras is the Billiards Tournament.

The idea is simple, gather a group of men in the local Billiards Hall and hold a Tournament. The only catch is that the tournament also includes presentations about HIV/AIDS and condom use, and in the final game the players have to answer questions based on the information from the presentations.

During the Health 63 practicum week in my site, we pulled off a very successful Billiards Tournament. It was definitely one of the most fun and rewarding events in my first year of service. Here are a few things that went well with the tournament that we hosted.

Repost: 10 books to read if you want to have an impact

We know that the PC community loves reading AND making an impact so combine those two things in the book list below, reposted from "10 Books You Should Read If You Want to Have an Impact" / Unreasonable.is and written by Paul Polak who has brought 22+ million farmers out of poverty. His work is dedicated to desgining products for the Other 90% (the 2.6 billion customers who live on less that $2/day)

Role Plays on Gender Roles

To get the group you work with thinking about the traditional roles and occupations for men and women, try a role play! In the activity Aprendemos Ser Hombres y Mujeres small groups choose one person to be a woman and one person to be a man, and then dress them up using papelógrafo and other recycled materials.

When all the ‘women’ and ‘men’ are ready, they act out how they think men and women would act in a normal situation—talking and moving around—while another member of the group takes notes. The notes are then used to start a discussion about the difference between sex and gender and the ways gender roles are learned and imposed by society.