In our blog this week we are hearing from our longest serving Blended Learning Leadership Initiative (BLLI) facilitator, Clyfane Saintil in Haiti. Clyfane has delivered the BLLI five times, and shares here her thoughts about why it’s so important for Haiti, the impact on the girls, and leadership in challenging times. We are so grateful to Clyfane and all our powerful facilitators around the world who make amazing things happen, often in very challenging circumstances - you are the strong female role models our girls need, and an inspiration to us all.
Clyfane has been working with our Haiti partner Fondation TOYA since 2017, and in 2019 was selected to be the facilitator for the first cohort of the Blended Learning Leadership Initiative, run in partnership with Global Girl Project. Clyfane is clear about the challenges that Haiti faces: “we don’t have a government, there are kidnappings, and violence in the street… it is a difficult place for young girls.” Because we aim to work with the most marginalised girls, who are often those disproportionately affected by these challenges, Clyfane is often having to adapt the programme and plans to the reality in Haiti. However, Haiti is so much more than these challenges. The picture Clyfane paints of the dynamism, vibrancy, enthusiasm and power of the girls she works with is the other story, less heard but more important, and the BLLI plays a central role in unlocking this.
Our girls in Haiti
Confidence and consciousness as powerful girls
The programme is focused on leadership, but more than that, it is about developing confidence and engagement for the girls. Talking about the development she sees in the girls she says that often when they come for the first time to the BLLI they are shy, but after a few sessions she sees them grow: “they are sharing their ideas, and they can express themselves better. When they start [the programme] they say they would prefer to be a boy because as a girl they feel they don’t have the ability to do certain things. By Session 3 or 4 they have learnt that they have power, and that as girls they can do whatever they want.”
The value of finding their voice and realising their power is something which comes up again and again: Clyfane notes that the education the girls receive does not teach them to argue, to think critically, to use their voice, but on this programme they learn how to do these things. She says that before and after the programme the girls “think and talk differently. They are conscious as a girl, and they know they have a responsibility to teach other girls, to show people that they can make change even in a hard situation. They know ‘we have to change something, we have to do this, even if we are young girls.’”
Our girls in Haiti join a call to connect with girls in other countries. They attended the session despite a fuel strike making travel challenging.
The meaning of leadership and the value of connection
At Global Girl Project, we are all about mobilising socially minded leaders for community-led change, but what is leadership for Clyfane and the girls in Haiti? “Leadership is talking about how we can manage a situation which is bad, how to help someone grow, how to support people to do great things, giving people hope. Leadership is learning about each other, learning about a situation, learning about the people in your life. Leadership is helping others.”
If leadership is about supporting others, it’s also about learning from them and getting inspired. Clyfane says that one of the most powerful things about the programme is that “the girls see girls around the world doing different things, and they know that they can do the same.” Connection to other girls all over the world, the inspiration that they draw from them, and the confidence they get from the programme is unique. We couldn’t put it better from Clyfane when she finishes by saying:
“The BLLI is not just a programme to teach the girls how to be a leader or do a community event - it’s also a family, because they have found a way to have hope, they have found a way where they can feel good and confident as a girl, they can learn how to make change, and they know they have the power.”
Confident, powerful girls are what we’re all about. We can’t wait to see how our girls in Haiti and all over change the world.
Want to get involved in having this amazing impact all over the world? Become a Global Changemaker and donate monthly or get in touch to find out how: info@globalgirlproject.org.