Vacances Sans Excision A Big Hit In Its Third Year

Last Saturday the Inter-African Committee USA (IAC-USA) held their third annual Vacances Sans Excision (Vacation or Summer without Cutting).  This was the third year that the organization, IAC-USA had held a summer camp of West African cultural activities.  The camp signifies that children can have a summer full of fun and traditional activities without the presence of female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C).

Although IAC-USA is located in Montgomery County, Maryland, this year the camp was held in a place called Shepherd’s Spring.  Shepherd’s Spring is a camp site located in Sharpsburg, Maryland in Washington County, about an hour and thirty minutes, west from Washington, D.C.

At approximately 9:30 Saturday morning, a large tour bus pulled onto the camp grounds of Shepherd’s Spring, loaded with children and their parents or guardians.  The drive from Germantown in Montgomery County was alone an adventure for the children.  As the road turned from the multiple-lane highway of I-270 to the two-lane highway of I-70, the children were in for a surprise.  The bus then turned off onto a narrow, hilly and winding single-lane road.  The excitement grew in the bus as they waited for a long commercial train to clear the road; the children watched the train roll by as traffic built up behind them.  There was applause when the train finally cleared the road for the bus and other vehicles to cross the train tracks.  The countryside consisted of vast farmland with horses and cows grazing the land.

The children and their parents disembarked the bus in excitement. They were in the remote countryside of the state of Maryland.  Once the bus was unloaded with both adults and children, the staff of Shepherd Spring Global Village took over.  They briefed the children and adults on the housekeeping rules and information, just before the children were divided into four different groups by age range.  Group A comprised of ages three to six, Group B were ages seven to nine, Group C were the children of ages ten through twelve, while Group D were the teenagers thirteen through fifteen.  In the first hour, Group A went on the Global Village Tour, Group B did their nature hike; Group C began their day with Vermiculture and Group D engaged in games and teambuilding.  The curriculum was designed so that at the end of the day, each group had completed the Global Village Tour, Nature Hike, Vermiculture as well as Games & Teambuilding.  While the children spent their first hour away from their parents, the adults were in the auditorium where they prepared the room for an education session on female genital mutilation and cutting.

The children piled in the cool air conditioned auditorium with relief on their faces from the heat.  The early speakers got the children excited and fired up before the two main speakers took the floor.  Angela Peabody of Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation shared a story with the children about three little girls who escaped last year from their would-be circumciser in her native Liberia.  She urged the children to be brave and never allow anyone to touch them inappropriately or persuade them to go off with them.  Peabody told the boys in the room to protect their sisters, female cousins and friends so they will not be cut.  The President of IAC-USA, Fatoumata Kande reiterated what Peabody had told the children.  She also told them that their bodies were made without flaws, and nobody needs to alter or tamper with their female genitals.  Mrs. Kande’s daughter, Djessou Kouyate who engineered the plans of the camp led the chant, “No more FGM”.  She asked the children to cross their arms in the shape of an “X” as they chanted the words, “No more FGM”.  The adults in the room joined in the chant.  By the end of the session, every child in the room knew that whatever FGM was, it was something that is not supposed to happen to girls.

The real fun began when a professional drummer from Cameroon, West Africa performed and solicited some of the children to play tambourines and mini drums.  The auditorium was transformed into a West African musical jamboree.  The adults led the children in a traditional line dance around the room to the beat of the drums and other instruments.  The music was so irresistible that the Shepherd’s Spring staff in the room joined in the line dance.

Next was time for lunch, and about fifty hungry children raced out of the auditorium to the tree-shaded picnic benches to satisfy their appetites. They found brown paper bags of turkey and cheese sandwiches, cookies, and chips and iced bottled water.

Shepherd’s Spring is designed to be a place to renew and grow oneself, and the Vacances Sans Excision Camp children did grow last Saturday.  The children will always remember what they were taught at this year’s camp.  They will also remember the activities they experienced at the Shepherd’ Spring Heifer Global Village.

The Heifer Global Village is a collection of authentic model houses from around the world.  They have mud huts, a stilt house, thatch roofs, rain barrels, animal pens, beautiful tapestries, prayer flags, water jugs, hand-painted Mayan tiles, and much more.  According to the global village, those homes represent impoverished areas around the world, where Heifer International works to eradicate hunger and poverty through gifts of livestock, education, and caring for the environment.  Shepherd’s Spring works in partnership with Heifer to provide highly rewarding programs for children, teens, and adults who can use their new experiences and insights to go out and make a difference in other’s lives.  The Heifer Global Village at Shepherd’s Spring is one of only four such villages in the country and the only one in the Mid-Atlantic region. The other three Heifer Global Villages are Heifer Farm in Rutland, Massachusetts; Howell Nature Center in Howell, Michigan; and Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Arkansas.

IAC-USA looks forward to a visible growth of the camp each year, and there is no doubt that the children attending this year’s camp will return in August of 2018.

Send all comments and questions about the preceding article to info@globalwomanpeacefoundation.org or call (703) 818-3787.       

Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation’s 2017 Calendar

Save-these-Dates

  • IAC-USA Benefit Dinner – August 26th
  • George Washington University hosts Dr. Pierre Foldes & GWPF in FGM/C Lecture – October 19th or 20th as part of the Walk To End FGM
  • Walk To End FGM registration – Now Open for Registration at globalwomanpeacefoundation.org, scroll down and click on the pink Register button
  • The education toolkit – Now Available and downloadable at https://www.globalwomanpeacefoundation.org/prevention-school-resource-fgm-toolkit/
  • Walk To End FGM – October 21st
  • Giving Tuesday – November 28th
  • Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Year-End Board Meeting – December 1st

We will update this calendar as the year progresses.  Please mark your calendars, as we work toward a prosperous 2017.

Volunteers Needed:  Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation is in search of volunteers for their 4th annual Walk to End FGM in the nation’s capital on Saturday, October 21, 2017.  Volunteers’ responsibilities are: Arrive early, set-up, on-site registration, T-shirt and bag distribution, oversee donations, supervision of the tents, coordinate pre-walk ceremony, seat speakers and guests, coordinate photo-ops and pre-walk interviews.  We invite our 2016 volunteers to join us this year.  They did a great job last year.  All volunteers will have free registration for the walk.  If you are interested in being a volunteer for the Walk To End FGM send an email to info@globalwomanpeacefoundation.org  and put in the subject line, “Volunteer”.

To volunteer, contact us at info@globalwomanpeacefoundation.org or call 703-818-3787.  Register at www.globalwomanpeacefoundation.org and Walk to End FGM.

Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.  As such, your donations and registration fees are tax deductible to the maximum extent required by law.

Make Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation Your Favorite Charity in 2017

When you shop during the year at Amazon, please select Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation as your charity of choice. When you #StartWithaSmile, Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to Global Woman Peace Foundation. Bookmark the link below and support us every time you shop.

In your charitable contributions and donations in 2017, please consider Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation by either through the DONATE BUTTON belowor by sending a check to Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation, 14001A Grumble Jones Court, Centreville, Virginia 20121.  Your generous donations are tax deductible.  Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Do you have an announcement you would like to place in this section of the newsletter?  Here are the guidelines below:

The guidelines to submit an announcement are to appear in this newsletter:

  • The length of announcement must be no more than a paragraph of 6 lines.
  • Your announcement is free of any charges.
  • Your announcement should be something that pertains to women, girls or students, such as events, walk-a-thons, conferences, etc.
  • If there is an accompanying image, it must be no less than 72 dpi, preferably in jpeg.
  • Your announcement must be received no later than the Thursday 5:00pm prior to the following Tuesday publication.

Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation reserves the right to deny a submission if it is not within our guidelines.

Weekly Word-Scramble

Do you enjoy playing with words?  This is a fun way to see how well you can unscramble the following words.  We will reveal the unscrambled words in next week’s edition of the newsletter.  If you enjoyed this, write and give us your feedback to info@globalwomanpeacefoundation.org.

Can you unscramble the following five words?

This Week’s Scrambled Words

PACM

MERUMDR

NOROMECA

LALIVEG

BURGSHARPS

 

Last Week’s Scrambled Words                               Last Week’s Unscrambled Words

ROYST                                                                                   STORY

HASIRGN                                                                             SHARING

MARUTA                                                                              TRAUMA

LISECEN                                                                              SILENCE

MEWOEPERNTM                                                              EMPOWERMENT

We give you five scrambled words each week.  We hope you enjoy playing.

How You Can Help & Support Us

Here are some of the ways you can help and support our programs in 2016:

  • Donations (including in-kind donations) globalwomanpeacefoundation.org
  • Partnering (collaborating in one of our programs and/or events)
  • Joining our Internship or Student-Ambassadorship Program
  • Volunteering
  • Donate through employer payroll deduction (through Your Cause, United Way or the government employee giving program)

Important Contacts in the Washington, D.C. Metro Area to Keep Handy

Global Woman P.E.A.C.E. Foundation               703-818-3787

National Child Abuse Hotline                              800-422-4453

Fairfax County Office for Women                       703-324-5730

Virginia Crime Victim Assistance                        888-887-3418

Montgomery County Abused Persons Program   240-777-4673 (24 hours)

Prince Georges County Sexual Assault                301-618-3154

Prince Georges County Child Advocacy Center  301-909-2089

Baltimore City Child Abuse Center                     410-396-6147

Frederick County Child Advocacy Center           301-600-1758

Howard County Listening Place                           410-313-2630

Washington County Child Advocacy Center       240-420-4308

District of Columbia Metropolitan Police            202-727-9099

Alexandria Victim/Witness Program                    703-746-4100

Arlington County Victim/Witness Program         703-228-7273

Loudon County Victim Witness Program            703-777-0417

Prince William County Victim/Witness               703-392-7083

Attention: The U.S. government opposes FGM/C, no matter the type, degree, or severity, and no matter what the motivation for performing it. The U.S. government considers FGM/C to be a serious human rights abuse, gender-based violence, and, when done to children, a form of child abuse. It is against the law to perform FGM/C in the United States on a girl under the age of 18 or to send or attempt to send her outside the United States so FGM/C can be performed. People who violate this law can face prison time and significant immigration consequences. Additionally, anyone who performs FGM/C on a woman 18 years old or older without her consent may be charged with a crime under other laws.  If someone performed FGM/C on you, you have not violated any U.S. laws and are not at fault, call 1-800-994-9662.