Dignity Life Skills Graduation in Kainga and Pahuwa

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Saturday was graduation day for the adolescent girls in the villages of Kainga and Pahuwa to celebrate their completion of the  Dignity Life Skills Course. In this 10 week course, they learned skills that will help prepare them for a good future. 

Over the course they learned that a healthy future -mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically -will not happen accidentally.  To have the positive future she wants,  each girl must develop her character to give herself resilience in times of adversity. "Everyone, even the most  successful person you know, goes through difficult times and faces adversity,  just like a tree in a strong wind," I said, "but a well developed character helps one to stay strong and  to bounce back  when the winds of trouble come. When adversity comes, those with strong character  and hope in God may be tossed by the wind,  but they won't break. They will remain standing strong. " I told them to seek out the council of good role models in their community, people whose lives are worthy of respect and who care about their future.  

Developing a strong character starts with knowing they were made in the image of God and that their lives are not accidental, random or meaningless, but they were made by God with a purpose. It also starts with embracing as their own what God said about them in Jeremiah 29:11 , "I know the plans I have for you, says The Lord, plans to bless you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future full of hope."

The girls learned that strength of character is not something they were born with, but a good strong character can be developed. They performed many skits and role plays designed to give them opportunities to experience what it feels like to  resist peer pressure, to  display self respect, assertiveness,  confidence, and a commitment to abstinence. 

Part of the course was designed to help the girls understand the risks of the AIDS virus and to avoid high risk behaviors that can lead to contracting the disease.  There are Life Skills courses taught in public schools here, but they gives the girls very little information other than,  "Be sure to use a condom." 

Our Dignity Life Skills course gave the girls much information, facts and myths, about AIDS, how it is spread and how it destroys one's immune system, but beyond that, it pointed them to to the fact that the best strategies for the prevention for AIDS is abstinence until marriage, being sure one's potential marriage partner has been tested for the virus, and then both partners being committed to a  faithful,  monogamous marriage relationship.  They learned that when a girl is abstinent until marriage, she is showing self-respect, resistance to peer pressure,  good decision making skills, and that she has plans for a healthy future. 

I cannot tell you how proud I was of all of these girls on graduation day.