Author: caroline Capon

This year on February 23rd Megan, Claire, Caroline and Lawrencia got the opportunity to run a Get Global workshop afternoon for Staines District Girlguiding – World Thinking Day. Traditionally February 22nd; it is a day for all girls to think about each other and people outside their community and across the globe, ideas that coincide with our aims for our Get Global programmes and Global Citizenship Education, so what better way to kick off our first UK Get Global workshop. 

51 girls, aged 5-14 discovered 7 interactive stations based on the first 6 sustainable development goals and global citizenship education. Together we dove into realities and fiction around poverty, where we’ve seen it in our everyday lives but also how it’s portrayed on the TV and shapes how we think poverty outside our community looks like. We planted tomato seeds to try growing some food for ourselves and others; talking about how taking part in activities such as Harvest Festival affects others. The girls showed Claire their yoga skills and how they connect to their families and others by sharing exercise together. Station 4 the girls surprised us with their knowledge of famous global citizens and how they have shaped the world we live in today. Lawrencia led discussions on gender equality, what it meant to them to be girls growing up in today’s world and what they were proud of achieving as girls. We also looked at how long items take to biodegrade and there were a few surprises around the idea that chewing gum NEVER disappears. The final stop was creating a global citizenship tree on the church hall wall – every girl added leaves with values and qualities they believe a global citizen should have and it was left up to be viewed by all the members of the community to hopefully be inspired. 

Rounding up the afternoon we finished with a fast-paced relay race using things we’d learnt that afternoon to win clues to a final anagram; accountable. Together we reflected on everything we’d part-taken in that afternoon and how we are all responsible for our actions and the knock affect our actions have on others. We didn’t realise then the world would be where it is today, a reminder of just how connected we all are and though we are divided by oceans we can work together to make a brighter and safer world for all of us.