Happy Spring GAD members,
Between preparing for the annual GAD youth leadership summer camp, planning the PATF taller for this year’s winners, as well as getting ready for next year’s round of scholarship applicants, working on various training manuals, and designing awesome t-shirts to sell to our PCV friends and family-the GAD committee certainly lives up to it’s guapo reputation this spring! We have lots of projects and fundraisers going on, and it all adds up to great Gender focused work being done here in PC Paraguay. To the new folks, pick a project, we always need extra hands; to the old hats, keep up the great work. The GAD committee is only as good as its members and right now we have a great team! Here are all the updates you all need to keep in the loop:
GAD at a Glance:
NEXT MEETING: Friday November 14th at 3:00pm (NVAC weekend is earlier due to Thanksgiving), Upstairs Conference Room-PCO
GAD-in-our-SITES: “If I were a Martian” Gender Roles Activity (from Como Planear mi Vida) and continued work on Boy’s Manual Questionnaires (for more info see below)
PATF: 1. the beca program has been approved by PC Washington! Scholarship Applications will be available in the office beginning Oct. 1 and the completed applications are DUE back to the PCO or other drop-off by Nov. 7 (not Nov 30 as previously announced). 2. the PATF Partnership Program is now open for online donations, so help us reach our fundraising goal by contacting friends and family for contributions.
SHIRTS: We voted on GAD T-shirt designs! We will have two new designs ready for purchase at Thanksgiving. #1 is a very cool design (black shirt with white ink) using the @ symbol for male/female, such as ell@s, to signify equity designed by Aubrey Stenger. #2 is a little more artistic design (med blue shirt, Kelley green ink) done by David Schmitz. It has an outline of the Paraguayan map with the face of a man and a woman inside in the back and on the front is a man and woman in a circular icon.
*These great designs are a bit hard to describe, but are awesome in person and will make fabulous GAD T-shirts! Be ready to buy ‘em hot off the press!
GAD Camp: We will be filling camp spots soon so, if you are a GAD member and are thinking about bringing youth to GAD Camp this summer, here is what you need to know: We will be inviting 15 volunteers to bring a total of 40 youth from all around the country; city or campo, all are welcome. We will be focused on an equal balance between males and females for both the campers and PCV facilitators. The theme is “responsible citizenship,” leadership and as always, Gender. Each Volunteer/youth team will be expected to contribute to the camp with a small fee to help with pasaje; they will be asked to provide some basic materials; and will be expected to practice their leadership skills by helping present a topic. Please keep this in mind as you decide who to invite. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact Gariety Pruitt or Nathan Antonio.
See you at the Nov meeting,
Gariety “Gabi”
GAD Secretary
This meeting ¤ September 19, 2008
Intros & Icebreaker: Smaller meeting than usual, but we had a few new folks from G27 and the Coordinator’s office who stopped by
PATF:
-This year’s deadline for the scholarship solicitude has been pushed up to Nov 7 instead of Nov 30 as we announced last meeting.
- The solicitude has been revised for this year’s applicants and will be available at the PC office starting Oct 1.
*This truly is a great opportunity for the youth in our sites, since 2000, the program’s first year, 140 scholarships have been given out and the program continues to grow and become more sustainable every year!
- As of this year, 10% of the scholarships will be available for young men.
- There are brochures in Spanish in the office that explain the application process
- The GAD committee is responsible for raising the $10,000 we need to run the program before Dec, so GAD members, get cracking! We have a template email in English that clearly explains the program, and technical training components, as well as the link to donate to the pc partnership program online to make it easy for you all to send to your friends and family back home, as well as other organizations you feel might contribute to our cause. We will be sending out the English materials via email, it will be posted on the blog and SharePoint as well.
-If you have more question about the PATF scholarship program, how the Peace Corps Partnership Program fundraising works, or are interested in helping youth from your site apply, please contact: Sarah Foust, GAD President Lara Gamble or email us at the Gad email address!
-Date for the 2nd technical training for this year’s winners will be set ASAP, and on the 19th all the recipients of last years becas were contacted, not to worry.
--Also, we announced last meeting a donation from a former PCPY GADer and her church to our scholarship program; what we thought was $4000 is really $400, but no matter, every little bit helps!
Kuat/GADGabber:
- The minutes will be submitted to the Kuat, as always, but feel free to submit any other articles related to gender issues you want to, all are welcome. The deadline is Nov 22.
- The GADGabber, your GAD “every-so-often” newsletter, is IN your boxes NOW, so check it out. It includes the questionnaire for the Boy’s manual so hang on to your copy, to use in site. It looks great, thanks Lauren and Rosana!
- The next installment should be in Feb/March after camp.
Gad-in-our-SITES:
- Last Activity: Boy’s Manuel Questionnaire
- Next Activity: “If I were a Martian” Gender Roles Activity (from Como Planear mi Vida)
-- The idea is to do a charla based on “if I were a Martian and didn’t know what the differences between male/female what would you tell me”….then switch to “what are the only things that don’t change about male/female no matter time, cultures etc”…it turns out to be physical parts only.
--This activity was very successful in Lauren’s site and she suggested it as a great way to start a conversation about gender roles and stereotypes.
-- This activity can be found as the alternate activity for the gender roles activity “Si fuera Hombre/Si fuera Mujer” found in the Stereotypes section of Como Planear mi Vida. There are lots of copies in the office if you don’t already have one.
Boy’s Manual:
- Several GAD members have gotten together and want to make a manual similar to Como Planear mi Vida, specifically targeted at young men here in Paraguay. This came out of a desire to create a tool geared at young men that seem to be a bit lost. The idea is to help female volunteers better understand and relate to their young male counterparts.
- To find out more about what topics should be included they have devised a survey/questionnaire to help the creators do a better job:
--The committee is still accepting surveys, the more the better; you can find the questions on the back of your GADGabber or on SharePoint.
-- Please include the age of the guys you interview so we can put their responses in context of their age group
Sec&Tres Reports:
Secretary:
--Checking the email regularly if you need to get a hold of us, please use it.
-I want to make the blog more useful, any suggestions?
Treasurer:
-Funds: 897.600Gs same as last meeting, no money in or out, but enough to order shirts for to sell at Thanksgiving.
Fundraising:
- PATF: $10,000 is the GAD committee’s financial obligation to the scholarship program. We raise the majority of the money through a Peace Corps Partnership Program by asking friends and family member and other folks at home to help us out. The donations are collected online through the Peace Corps website. As noted previously, Katie Cook’s Donation will not be used to jump-start our fundraising; it will be applied to the tallers.
- T-shirts will be ordered to sell at Thanksgiving; there will be two designs available.
- Auction: At Thanksgiving, auction off COSing PCVs’ stuff
--There are “cute palinganas” in which to deposit auction items in the Coordinator’s office, by Sarah’s desk. There will also be a Journal or Log to note the items to be auctioned off to keep track of what is left to us.
-- Allison, the current Auction Director, will be doing most of the leg work up until thanksgiving, but due to the change in the COS date for G22 will but unable to attend thanksgiving and be our auctioneer. We are looking for volunteers interested in helping out at Thanksgiving; please let us know if you are willing.
Gad-Camp:
- The committee has already had several meetings and is well on its way to organizing a great taller. The theme for this year’s leadership camp will be “civic responsibility”. The tentative date for camp is the last week in January, right before school starts up again.
- They are currently working to finish the SPA Grant application and will be turning it in soon.
- We will be inviting 40 youth, brought by 15 PCV facilitators to Tati Jupi Nature Reserve near the Itapúa Damn. Their camp “contra-parte” will be 60.000Gs to cover a percentage of their pasaje. An email will come out announcing available spots for youth participants and more detail in the near future, so keep your eyes open.
Jopara Sub-Committee:
- Jopara was a group focused on diversity issues with-in Paraguay and the PC experience. It was originally a separate entity, but was incorporated into GAD as a sub-committee last May. Since then it has been inactive, but since it is an important component, we would like to revive it again.
Between preparing for the annual GAD youth leadership summer camp, planning the PATF taller for this year’s winners, as well as getting ready for next year’s round of scholarship applicants, working on various training manuals, and designing awesome t-shirts to sell to our PCV friends and family-the GAD committee certainly lives up to it’s guapo reputation this spring! We have lots of projects and fundraisers going on, and it all adds up to great Gender focused work being done here in PC Paraguay. To the new folks, pick a project, we always need extra hands; to the old hats, keep up the great work. The GAD committee is only as good as its members and right now we have a great team! Here are all the updates you all need to keep in the loop:
GAD at a Glance:
NEXT MEETING: Friday November 14th at 3:00pm (NVAC weekend is earlier due to Thanksgiving), Upstairs Conference Room-PCO
GAD-in-our-SITES: “If I were a Martian” Gender Roles Activity (from Como Planear mi Vida) and continued work on Boy’s Manual Questionnaires (for more info see below)
PATF: 1. the beca program has been approved by PC Washington! Scholarship Applications will be available in the office beginning Oct. 1 and the completed applications are DUE back to the PCO or other drop-off by Nov. 7 (not Nov 30 as previously announced). 2. the PATF Partnership Program is now open for online donations, so help us reach our fundraising goal by contacting friends and family for contributions.
SHIRTS: We voted on GAD T-shirt designs! We will have two new designs ready for purchase at Thanksgiving. #1 is a very cool design (black shirt with white ink) using the @ symbol for male/female, such as ell@s, to signify equity designed by Aubrey Stenger. #2 is a little more artistic design (med blue shirt, Kelley green ink) done by David Schmitz. It has an outline of the Paraguayan map with the face of a man and a woman inside in the back and on the front is a man and woman in a circular icon.
*These great designs are a bit hard to describe, but are awesome in person and will make fabulous GAD T-shirts! Be ready to buy ‘em hot off the press!
GAD Camp: We will be filling camp spots soon so, if you are a GAD member and are thinking about bringing youth to GAD Camp this summer, here is what you need to know: We will be inviting 15 volunteers to bring a total of 40 youth from all around the country; city or campo, all are welcome. We will be focused on an equal balance between males and females for both the campers and PCV facilitators. The theme is “responsible citizenship,” leadership and as always, Gender. Each Volunteer/youth team will be expected to contribute to the camp with a small fee to help with pasaje; they will be asked to provide some basic materials; and will be expected to practice their leadership skills by helping present a topic. Please keep this in mind as you decide who to invite. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact Gariety Pruitt or Nathan Antonio.
See you at the Nov meeting,
Gariety “Gabi”
GAD Secretary
This meeting ¤ September 19, 2008
Intros & Icebreaker: Smaller meeting than usual, but we had a few new folks from G27 and the Coordinator’s office who stopped by
PATF:
-This year’s deadline for the scholarship solicitude has been pushed up to Nov 7 instead of Nov 30 as we announced last meeting.
- The solicitude has been revised for this year’s applicants and will be available at the PC office starting Oct 1.
*This truly is a great opportunity for the youth in our sites, since 2000, the program’s first year, 140 scholarships have been given out and the program continues to grow and become more sustainable every year!
- As of this year, 10% of the scholarships will be available for young men.
- There are brochures in Spanish in the office that explain the application process
- The GAD committee is responsible for raising the $10,000 we need to run the program before Dec, so GAD members, get cracking! We have a template email in English that clearly explains the program, and technical training components, as well as the link to donate to the pc partnership program online to make it easy for you all to send to your friends and family back home, as well as other organizations you feel might contribute to our cause. We will be sending out the English materials via email, it will be posted on the blog and SharePoint as well.
-If you have more question about the PATF scholarship program, how the Peace Corps Partnership Program fundraising works, or are interested in helping youth from your site apply, please contact: Sarah Foust, GAD President Lara Gamble or email us at the Gad email address!
-Date for the 2nd technical training for this year’s winners will be set ASAP, and on the 19th all the recipients of last years becas were contacted, not to worry.
--Also, we announced last meeting a donation from a former PCPY GADer and her church to our scholarship program; what we thought was $4000 is really $400, but no matter, every little bit helps!
Kuat/GADGabber:
- The minutes will be submitted to the Kuat, as always, but feel free to submit any other articles related to gender issues you want to, all are welcome. The deadline is Nov 22.
- The GADGabber, your GAD “every-so-often” newsletter, is IN your boxes NOW, so check it out. It includes the questionnaire for the Boy’s manual so hang on to your copy, to use in site. It looks great, thanks Lauren and Rosana!
- The next installment should be in Feb/March after camp.
Gad-in-our-SITES:
- Last Activity: Boy’s Manuel Questionnaire
- Next Activity: “If I were a Martian” Gender Roles Activity (from Como Planear mi Vida)
-- The idea is to do a charla based on “if I were a Martian and didn’t know what the differences between male/female what would you tell me”….then switch to “what are the only things that don’t change about male/female no matter time, cultures etc”…it turns out to be physical parts only.
--This activity was very successful in Lauren’s site and she suggested it as a great way to start a conversation about gender roles and stereotypes.
-- This activity can be found as the alternate activity for the gender roles activity “Si fuera Hombre/Si fuera Mujer” found in the Stereotypes section of Como Planear mi Vida. There are lots of copies in the office if you don’t already have one.
Boy’s Manual:
- Several GAD members have gotten together and want to make a manual similar to Como Planear mi Vida, specifically targeted at young men here in Paraguay. This came out of a desire to create a tool geared at young men that seem to be a bit lost. The idea is to help female volunteers better understand and relate to their young male counterparts.
- To find out more about what topics should be included they have devised a survey/questionnaire to help the creators do a better job:
--The committee is still accepting surveys, the more the better; you can find the questions on the back of your GADGabber or on SharePoint.
-- Please include the age of the guys you interview so we can put their responses in context of their age group
Sec&Tres Reports:
Secretary:
--Checking the email regularly if you need to get a hold of us, please use it.
-I want to make the blog more useful, any suggestions?
Treasurer:
-Funds: 897.600Gs same as last meeting, no money in or out, but enough to order shirts for to sell at Thanksgiving.
Fundraising:
- PATF: $10,000 is the GAD committee’s financial obligation to the scholarship program. We raise the majority of the money through a Peace Corps Partnership Program by asking friends and family member and other folks at home to help us out. The donations are collected online through the Peace Corps website. As noted previously, Katie Cook’s Donation will not be used to jump-start our fundraising; it will be applied to the tallers.
- T-shirts will be ordered to sell at Thanksgiving; there will be two designs available.
- Auction: At Thanksgiving, auction off COSing PCVs’ stuff
--There are “cute palinganas” in which to deposit auction items in the Coordinator’s office, by Sarah’s desk. There will also be a Journal or Log to note the items to be auctioned off to keep track of what is left to us.
-- Allison, the current Auction Director, will be doing most of the leg work up until thanksgiving, but due to the change in the COS date for G22 will but unable to attend thanksgiving and be our auctioneer. We are looking for volunteers interested in helping out at Thanksgiving; please let us know if you are willing.
Gad-Camp:
- The committee has already had several meetings and is well on its way to organizing a great taller. The theme for this year’s leadership camp will be “civic responsibility”. The tentative date for camp is the last week in January, right before school starts up again.
- They are currently working to finish the SPA Grant application and will be turning it in soon.
- We will be inviting 40 youth, brought by 15 PCV facilitators to Tati Jupi Nature Reserve near the Itapúa Damn. Their camp “contra-parte” will be 60.000Gs to cover a percentage of their pasaje. An email will come out announcing available spots for youth participants and more detail in the near future, so keep your eyes open.
Jopara Sub-Committee:
- Jopara was a group focused on diversity issues with-in Paraguay and the PC experience. It was originally a separate entity, but was incorporated into GAD as a sub-committee last May. Since then it has been inactive, but since it is an important component, we would like to revive it again.
-- Nathan will tentatively/temporarily head up the revival and plan a date for a meeting around the time of the next GAD meeting.
GAD Manuel:
- During open discussion, there seemed to be a bit of confusion along the lines of the manual. We have a completed GAD Binder, found in the Coordinator’s office that the “higher ups” requested we make. It has a lot of great information about GAD and it is a good start, but there was more talk about the need for a manual complete with charlas and activities, much like the HIV/AIDS manual we receive in training.
--The committee for the creation of the manual has been inactive as of late, so if you are interested in heading up this project, let us know.
GAD Manuel:
- During open discussion, there seemed to be a bit of confusion along the lines of the manual. We have a completed GAD Binder, found in the Coordinator’s office that the “higher ups” requested we make. It has a lot of great information about GAD and it is a good start, but there was more talk about the need for a manual complete with charlas and activities, much like the HIV/AIDS manual we receive in training.
--The committee for the creation of the manual has been inactive as of late, so if you are interested in heading up this project, let us know.
