Help Needed!!!

Perhaps you can remember me posting last year about asking for donations for a camp. I am part of a Peace Corps group made up of volunteers called the Gender & Development Council often called GAD. Every year volunteers in GAD  hold three camps, two are for girls called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and TOBE (Teaching Our Boys Excellence).

Last year I went to Camp GLOW with five of my students and my counterpart. We had a great time.
The girls learned about leadership, volunteerism, project design & management, sexual health, HIV/AIDS, and others. Most of these topics were thing my students have never learned anything about previously.

Myself with the other camp counselors and some campers

The counselors dancing to "All The Single Ladies"

On the last day we had a public service campaign for the Ukrainian anti-trafficking hotline 527

My students loved what they learned so much that in March I held a Day GLOW at school with Cynden, Kerry, and Kris. It involved students from five different schools (three in Konstantinovka and Kerry's and Cynden's schools in Melitopol). We each conducted a different lesson. Kris taught leadership, Kerry and Cynden body image and self-esteem, healthy relationships and I taught a lesson on goals. It was a success and all who attended enjoyed it!

My director and I

students building a tower as a part of a leadership exercise using only limited materials

Cynden and Kerry talking about healthy relationships

All of the attendees and their teams

Gender stereotypes

Volunteers and Ukrainian teachers

This year I am not going to Camp GLOW. Instead six boys from the area, including four of my own students, are going to Camp TOBE. They are very excited to go, but we still have a long, long way to go on fundraising. We have over $3,200 left to raise. If you are able to, please help by donating here: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projdetail&projdesc=343-313.

All donations are tax deductible and go towards camp expenses. For more info go to: http://globeukraine.blogspot.com/.
_____________________________________________________________

Hello Friends and Family!
During my time in Ukraine as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I have become heavily involved with a working
group of volunteers called the Gender & Development Council (GAD).
Every summer, GAD, in partnership with local Ukrainian organizations, organizes two summer camps
for Ukrainian youth, ages 14‐17. Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and Camp TOBE (Teaching
Our Boys Excellence) provide a unique opportunity to gather 40 girls and 20 boys from different parts
of Ukraine to participate in a camp dedicated to learning about gender issues and developing
leadership as well as team building. Camp topics include: How to GLOW/Excel, How to Design a
Volunteer Project, CounterTrafficking
and Human Rights, Domestic Violence, HIV/AIDS Awareness, and
Healthy Lifestyles and Body Image, in combination with fun leadership and team building exercises and
excursions.
This year, GAD and our partnering organizations will offer two GLOW and one TOBE camps. One
GLOW and TOBE camp will take place in the central town of Kozyaten, and the other GLOW camp will
be held in the western town of Kolomiya. Last year GAD held three camps, and they were all
fantastic—this year we can only hope for the same.
We are lucky to be working with Ukrainian partners who are eager to help make these camps a
success, but we are still in need of funds to help make these camps a reality. Through the Peace Corps
Partnership Program, we are asking friends, family, and local businesses back home to help us cover
costs for these camps.
In order to make these camps a reality, we need to raise $6,331. But your dollar can go a long way
here. For example, you could:
• Buy materials for a scavenger hunt—$12.50
• Send a Ukrainian child to camp for one day—$13
• Pay for copies of camp materials—$25
• Bus 40 kids to their campsite—$30
• Buy art and work supplies for one camp—$40
• Send a Ukrainian child to camp for one week—$72
Please consider making a taxdeductible
donation ($10, $20 or more) to help us make camp
GLOW/TOBE an amazing experience for the Ukrainian youth we work with each and everyday. Every
little bit counts!
You can make a donation here:
Or go to peacecorps.gov, and search for GLOW/TOBE Leadership
Summer Camp under "Ukraine" in "Donate to Volunteer Projects." Also,
visit our blog at http://globeukraine.blogspot.com for more photos,
videos and testimonials from past campers and counselors.
Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you for
helping us empower the next generation of Ukraine!
Sincerely,
GENDER & DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
Peace Corps Ukraine

The Longest Overdue Update Ever

Hello everyone!

It has been a very embarrassing eleven months since I have updated my blog and that is just too long. As most of you know, for a very long time I had really slow and unreliable internet. However, thanks to my really sweet host mom who skypes with her son in St. Petersburg, I now have fast internet. I have an ethernet cable that runs from my desk through my window to outside then across the neighbors yard and finally leads to his son's bedroom where our modem lies. It took seven months to get fast internet and its marvelous. I can now skype, listen to music, and read the NY Times at the obsessive rates I once did in college. After reading this today, I realized I had to update my blog again and more frequently. 

I am sure that what few (if any) people I have paying attention to my blog have been wondering what I am up to. Here is what I have been occupying myself with these past months:

1). Getting my Small Project Assistance Grant Approved: I spent most of this fall getting my grant for a school radio approved. It was a grant worth over $4,000 that was to install a radio station inside the school. It was a decent amount of work, but I am glad I did it. Currently we have purchased most of the equipment and are installing it is being installed as we speak.

2). Traveling to Slovakia and the Baltics: Last Christmas I went to Slovakia and I stayed with both of my old host families and saw my friends. I have missed them a lot since I have come to Ukraine and it felt like going home.

Last month I went to Estonia, Latvia, and Finland with my boyfriend. It was an amazing trip as each country was very different from each other. We both really enjoyed it. Pictures of both trips will be posted.


3). Getting a water grant: I won a small grant for the school to get new sinks for hand washing. One sink will have a filter placed on it to drink from.The new pipes have been installed and the tile work is jut about done. You can see what it once looked like here: http://appropriateprojects.com/node/1059.


4). Working on a very successful pen-pal exchange program: I have been working a really successful pen pal exchange program with a teacher from Elm Street Elementary School named Cathie Hand. She was my mother's class's pen pal when she was stationed in Iraq with the National Guard. So far we have sent 3 batches of letters to them and they have replied to us with two batches. The kids have really enjoyed it and so have I. Mail is a great thing.

5). Hanging Out With Friends: I now live within ten kilometers of six other Peace Corps Volunteers. They are all great and I love them all. There is my friend Kris in the village of Myrne. Kris is from Michigan and wants to be a chef so of course he is an amazing cook. All of us often get together and cook or rather watch him do it. There is also Joey, my boyfriend who loves only 5 kilometers away from me. He works for the Melitopol City Council and is from Cincinnati. Kerry and Logan, a married couple from New York also live in Melitopol along with Cynden, who is from Colorado. All three of them are English teachers too. And lastly, a newbie named Kristen just came to Konstantinovka a month ago from another village. She is from Naperville, Illinois and is very happy to have so many new friends around her.

All of us at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at my house

6). Hillary: The last thing occupying my time in the last several months is my cat Hillary or Hill. My host mom's cat had kittens twice last year and is about to have more any second now. Hill and her brother Bill were products of her second litter. Bill was given away but Hill is mine and sleeps with me whenever she is allowed to. 

Hillary is in the foreground and Bill is behind her staring up

I think that gives you an accurate idea of what life as we now know it is like. I hope to publish more pictures soon.