Voulunteer's Voice - Laura Stoerzer - (Working with the girls together in groups)

To organize our time and skills better, we split the girls into three groups with seven children for each volunteer.  This helps us because now we can give individual attention apart from spending concentrated efforts on their weaker areas. 

We had a chat with the girls individually to get to know them first.  Also, we sat together in our respective groups to know each other’s expectations.  

Since the girls have a very long day at school, we decided to do some daily outdoor games and sports after school with all the groups together.  We play different kinds of games, go jogging and also do some stretching or showing them some self-protection skills.  Girls looked like they are having lot of fun during these physical activities.

Before and after dinner, we spend time with few girls to teach English and Computer skills.  Each girl can choose a day and we spend that day exclusively for that child.  We are trying to figure out their baseline in these areas so that we can measure their progress. 

Every Saturday, we try to do some environmental education with the girls to help them understand how important it is to protect it.  This includes treatment of animals, not wasting water, and what they ought to do with trash. 

On Saturday evenings, we use for group feedback where we all sit together and talk.  Girls can tell us how the week went for them with us so that we can build a working relationship with them.  We are given specific goals in each area for us to reach for individual children.