Summer workshop on life skills for Sharjah Girl Guides

Sharjah / Emirates Business

The Sharjah Girl Guides are learning an array of important life skills during a series of workshops taking place this week. Held from July 17-21 and titled ‘Summer of Accomplishments,’ the programme covers topics ranging from self-defense to stage crafts and has been specially devised to imbue the girls with important attributes that will both facilitate their personal development and help them serve their communities.
Entrepreneurship is one of the key topics explored at the workshops, with the Guides being taken through interactive classroom activities to find out how they can start their own businesses while they are still young. The activity aims to provide useful, practical concepts that can assist them in becoming productive professionals, teaching them – among other things – how to write business plans and how to deal with ethical dilemmas. Designed to be a practical lesson, the girls will use what they have learned from the workshop by participating in the Sharjah Girl Guides’ mini bazar that takes place later this year.
For Guides keen to be creative with their hands, the Summer of Accomplishments arts workshops will teach them pottery, craftwork and drawing skills. The pottery class will introduce the girls to the materials and equipment used to produce ceramics, show them how to use the potter’s wheel, and reveal various firing techniques. Those attending the craftwork session will learn skilled techniques that will enable them to create their own pieces, with crocheting and embroidery. The third arts workshop, which has a focus on Japanese ‘Manga,’ will explain more about the art of comics and help the girls uncover the secrets of creating engaging cartoon characters.
“We have devised the Summer of Accomplishments programme to teach the Guides and Brownies key skills that they can use for their own enjoyment or even for business operations. The entrepreneurship workshop is the perfect accompaniment to the craft lessons, as it shows the girls how to monetise what they have learned. This encourages them to think about the possibility of starting their own businesses, reveals their latent venture talents and help them become productive members in the community. The Summer of Accomplishments is an ideal activity to revitalise and reenergise our girls after Ramadan and Eid,” said Shaikha Al Shamsi Assistant Manager at SGG.
Also taking place at the Sharjah Girl Guides’ Summer of Accomplishments programme is a theatre and self-defence programme.
Under the theatre programme, Brownies will learn the essential elements of stage craft and receive acting lessons, with the aim being to develop their mechanisms of expression, as well as to teach them group participation and leadership skills.
The self-defence programme, in turn, has been designed to show the girls how to defend themselves in a variety of situations and in the process, improve their balance, enhance their coordination and develop their self-confidence.
Guides and Brownies are the future professionals and homemakers of this great country and the organisation is committed to providing them with all the skills they need to become productive members of the community right from an early age.