Preface…
Ice breaker Activity…
Young Women’s Leadership...
Preface
Young women encounter challenges everyday. Apart from sharing
their communities’ struggles over limited resources like water, land or jobs,
many systematically face discrimination simply by virtue of being female. This
includes physical and sexual violence, being kept out of school, disproportionate
vulnerability to HIV infection and lack of access to property and other rights.
Yet young women around the globe possess the collective power
to change their lives, their communities and the world we live in. Just as they
face daily challenges, young women are continually developing innovative,
effective ways to improve their lives. By bringing together their wisdom and
creativity, young women are leading change.
Understanding that investing in young women’s leadership is
essential to social change now and for the future, PTI with the generous
support of ISF, has developed this training resource for and by young women.
Empowering Young Women to Lead Change is designed to support
the development of young women’s skills and to enable them to provide leadership
on the issues that concern them. It offers engaging and dynamic activities to
motivate and enable young women to believe in their abilities to catalyse
change and to mobilise others to do the same. It is a flexible tool for
learning and exploring issues from human rights and violence against women to
body image, self-esteem and developing leadership skills.
We hope this manual will be a valuable training tool to
support the empowerment of young women of Pakistan.
Ice Breakers and
Introductions
Adding icebreakers, introduction and
tone setting exercises to a workshop helps to
▼ create a positive group atmosphere
▼ relax participants
▼ break down social barriers
▼ energise & motivate
▼ encourage participants to think
outside the box
▼ enable participants to get to know
one another
Activity 1
Ground Rules (Tone
Setting)
Objectives:
o
To inform participants of the workshop’s objectives
o
To set a tone of openness and respect for the workshop’s
proceedings
You will need:
ü One facilitator
ü Workshop objectives
listed on a flip chart page
ü Flip chart paper
ü Markers
Preparation:
Arrange seats in a circle and place flip
chart paper where it will be seen by everyone in the circle
Place list of the workshop’s objectives
where all participants can see it
Activity overview:
Facilitator shares the workshop’s
objectives with participants, and explains that to be productive they need to
agree to some ground rules for the time they will work together. Both
participants and facilitator can suggest rules. There must be group consensus
on each rule before it is added to the list of rules.
Instructions for facilitator:
1. Explain the workshop’s objectives
to participants, and leave the list of objectives on display for the duration
of the workshop.
2. Explain the importance of ground
rules to ensure a successful workshop. Let participants know that each woman
can suggest a rule, and that the group must agree to all suggestions on before
they are listed as rules.
3. Invite the group to suggest rules,
and write ‘OUR RULES’ as a heading on a sheet of flip chart paper.
4. If no one suggests anything, make
a suggestion yourself, such as no name calling or harsh judgments, returning
from breaks on time, or respectful listening. This will break the ice and
encourage greater participation.
5. When the list is complete place it
on display for the duration of the workshop.
Activity 2 Objective
Speaking (Introduction)
Objectives:
To help participants get acquainted with each other.
You will need:
One facilitator
Activity overview:
Participants are given 15 minutes to find an object that
represents some aspect of themselves. Participants then introduce themselves
through the selected object.
Instructions for
facilitator:
1. Tell participants that they have 15 minutes to search the
surrounding area, both outside and inside if appropriate, for an object they
feel represents some of their characteristics or who they are.
2. After the 15 minutes are over, call participants back
together.
3. Allow each participant a turn to say her name, show the
object she selected and explain what it represents. For example, “My name is Ayesha,
I picked this rock because it is strong but smooth, like me.”
Activity 3 I say Boom
(Ice Breaker)
Objectives:
To energies participants, and help them feel more comfortable
with each other.
You will need:
One facilitator
Activity overview:
Participants stand in a circle, and the facilitator says a
series of words that the
group must repeat in the same manner and volume.
Instructions for
facilitator:
1. Ask participants to stand in a circle and explain that
they must repeat everything you say in the say manner and volume.
2. The exercise will run as follows:
Facilitator: “I say BOOM”
Participants: “I say BOOM”
Facilitator: “I say a boom-chicka “
Participants: “I say a boom-chicka”
Facilitator: “I say a boom-chicka-boom”
Participants: “I say a boom-chicka-boom”
Facilitator: “I say a
boom-chicka-rocka-chicka-rocka-chicka-boom”
Participants: “I say a
boom-chicka-rocka-chicka-rocka-chicka-boom”
Facilitator “Oh yeah”
Participants: “Oh yeah”
Facilitator: “One more time”
Participants: “One more time”
Facilitator: “In (opera, sign language, whisper, sexy, fast,
slow, etc)”
3. Whenever you change style, the participants must follow.
4. Optionally, after the first round you can invite participants
to take turns leading the exercise.
Developing Leadership
Why develop young women’s leadership?
How is it different from any other
leadership?
As young women we reject the label of
victim and recognise that living with challenges makes us the best qualified to
lead change and provide solutions for those situations. We are change agents
and our leadership can bring vitality, creativity and courage for social
change. We have the power to inspire and mobilise others for positive action.
We can encourage the questioning of systems and beliefs that limit lives and
choices. With courage we can confront even the injustices that have been in
place long before our lives began. By our leadership young women ensure that
social change will not stop when the generation before us is no more, but only
when peace, justice, health, human dignity and care for the environment has
been achieved everywhere, and for everyone. By supporting each other we ensure
that our leadership remains strong in the face of unfair gender and age biases,
and maximise our power to change.
As we continue to develop and define
our leadership, the advice and example of older, more experienced women are
invaluable. By working together, women of all ages can help each other grow,
maximise our strengths and fulfil our potential as change makers.
Activity 1 Car &
Driver (Leadership)
Objectives:
To explore the emotional implications
of leading and following.
ü One facilitator
ü An enclosed space for
participants to walk around
ü Seats in a circle
ü Flip chart, paper and
markers
Preparation:
To make the exercise more challenging
you can scatter obstacles like chairs and tables throughout the space.
Arrange seats in a circle
Activity overview:
Participants are paired off and
assigned the role of car or driver. The car must keep her eyes closed and
follow the instructions of the driver who stays behind her giving instructions
silently with a set of touch signals. It is the driver’s responsibility to
protect the car from collisions. Group discussions after the game explore the
emotional implications of leading and blindly following.
Instructions for facilitator:
1. Randomly divide group into pairs,
and ask them to stand with their partner. For
a more challenging exercise put women
who do not know each other well together.
2. Assign one woman from each pair to
be the car. The other woman will be the driver.
3. Explain that the role of the car
is to keep her eyes closed and follow the driver’s instructions.
4. Explain that the role of the
driver is to keep her eyes opened and protect the car from collisions.
5. Tell participants that talking is
not allowed, and drivers will communicate to cars with the following touch
signals:
a. Touch on the middle of the back
means walk
b. Subsequent touches on the middle
of the back mean walk faster
c. Touch on right shoulder means turn
right
d. Touch on left shoulder means turn
left
e. Touch on head means stop
Please note that cars should be
touched gently.
6. Make sure everyone understands
their roles, and the signals, then start the exercise.
7. After one or two minutes stop the
exercise and have each pair switch roles. Cars become drivers and vice versa.
8. Stop the second round after one or
two minutes and have the group return to their seats.
9. Lead a discussion on the activity
using the notes provided.
Activity 2 Good
Leader/Bad Leader (Leadership)
Objectives:
To explore the qualities of good and
bad leadership.
You will need:
ü One facilitator
ü At least one blank
sheet of paper per participant *(It is useful to have some extras)
ü Pens or pencils for all
participants
ü Flip chart, paper and
markers
Preparation:
Arrange seats in a circle and place flip
chart paper where it will be seen by everyone in the circle
Make two columns on a sheet of flip chart
paper. Write Good Leader at the top of one column and Bad Leader at the top of
the other.
Activity overview:
Participants are asked to think of a
leader they admire as well as one they dislike and write down three qualities
they feel make them a good or bad leader.
Discussions explore what makes an
effective leader and how to avoid negative leadership.
Instructions for facilitator:
1. Hand out paper and pencils or pens
to each participant.
2. Instruct participants to think of
a leader they admire (e.g. mother, community leader, celebrity, politician) and
write down three qualities they believe makes them effective leaders.
3. Next, ask participants to think of
a leader they dislike (e.g. Adolf Hitler, a teacher) and write three qualities
that make them bad leaders.
4. Allow approximately ten minutes
for this, then ask each young woman to share what she has written. Record the
qualities listed on the flip chart paper under the column ‘Good Leader’ or ‘Bad
Leader’.
5. Discuss the similarities and
differences in the qualities that came out. Was anything surprising? Are there
any similarities with the qualities for a good leader and for a bad leader? Do
the leaders we do not admire have similar qualities to ones we do admire? How
can we avoid becoming bad leaders?
What can we do to be effective
leaders?
6. Following the discussion ask each
young woman to reflect on all the qualities that the group has identified for
both good and bad leaders and list:
a. Positive qualities she believes
that she already has
b. Positive qualities she would like
to develop
c. Negative qualities she would like
to manage or eliminate
