Irish Girl Guides

Irish Girl Guides
GAT Resource Pack
together we can
change our world
in association with Plan Ireland
and World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts

Table of Contents
Introduction — Millennium Development Goals 1
WAGGGS Global Action Theme 2
IGG GAT Resource 3
How to Use this Pack 4
How to earn a GAT Badge 6
Introduce MDG’s to your girls 7
MDG 1 Introduction — “Together we can end extreme Poverty and Hunger” 8
Ladybird Activities 11
Brownie Activities 13
Guide Activities 17
Senior Branch Activities 20
MDG 2 Introduction — “Education opens doors for all girls and boys” 21
Ladybird Activities 24
Brownie Activities 26
Guide Activities 28
Senior Branch Activities 32
MDG 3 Introduction — “Empowering girls will change our world.” 33
Ladybird Activities 37
Brownie Activities 40
Guide Activities 42
Senior Branch Activities 45
MDG 4 Introduction — “Together we can save children’s lives.” 46
Ladybird Activities 49
Brownie Activities 51
Guide Activities 54
Senior Branch Activities 57
MDG 5 Introduction — “Every mother’s life and health are precious.” 58
Ladybird Activities 61
Brownie Activities 63
Guide Activities 66
Senior Branch Activities 70
MDG 6 Introduction — “We can stop the spread of AIDS, Malaria and other diseases.” 71
Ladybird Activities 74
Brownie Activities 76
Guide Activities 77
Senior Branch Activities 79
MDG 7 Introduction — “ We can save our planet.” 80
Ladybird Activities 83
Brownie Activities 84
Guide Activities 86
Senior Branch Activities 89
MDG 8 Introduction — “ We can produce peace through partnerships” 90
Ladybird Activities 92
Brownie Activities 93
Guide Activities 95
Senior Branch Activities 99

Millennium Development Goals
Introduction
In 2000, the United Nations (UN) held the largest gathering of world leaders in history,
with 189 countries represented. Together they made a “Millennium Declaration” to
reduce extreme poverty around the world by 2015. This declaration is the most
important promise ever made to the world’s most vulnerable people.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which arose out of the declaration are a set
of eight priorities aiming to end extreme poverty, among other things, and to allow the
most basic human rights for every individual around the world.
At the moment, over 1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty, which is defined as
earning less than one euro a day. Over 100 million children of primary school age are
not in school, and up to ten million children a year die before the age of five.
The MDGs are aimed at raising people’s awareness of these worldwide concerns. At the
core of many of these are children who must be given hope that there will be a future
for them and that they will be able to face the challenges that lie ahead.
Together we
can end
extreme
poverty and
hunger
Every mother’s
life and health is
precious
1 2 3 4
Education opens
doors for all
girls and boys
Empowering
girls will change
our world
5 6 7 8
We can stop the
spread of HIV/
AIDS, malaria
and other
diseases
We can save
our planet
Together we
can save
children’s lives
We can create
peace through
partnership
1

2
WAGGGS Global Action Theme
Girls and young women are disproportionately
affected by extreme poverty. The World Association
of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), a member
organisation of the UN, has issued a rallying call to
its members worldwide to come together to help
achieve the MDGs.
To mobilise its ten million members worldwide, WAGGGS initiated an educational
programme, the Global Action Theme (GAT), ‘Girls worldwide say “Together we can
change our world”’.
The GAT initiative encourages girls, young women and members of all ages to make a
personal commitment to change the world around them. By speaking out and taking
action together, girls and young women everywhere have the power to bring about
change - by influencing practices and policies at local, national and international level.
WAGGGS created inspiring and youth-friendly messages for the eight Millennium Goals
(MDG) topics as follows:-
MDG 1 : Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
“Together we can end extreme poverty and hunger”
MDG 2 : Achieve universal primary education
“Education opens doors for all girls and boys”
MDG 3 : Promote gender equality and empower women
“Empowering girls will change our world”
MDG 4 : Reduce child mortality
“Together we can save children’s lives”
MDG 5 : Improve maternal health
“Every mother’s life and health is precious”
MDG 6 : Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
“We can stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases”
MDG 7 : Ensure environmental sustainability
“We can save our planet”
MDG 8 : Develop a Global Partnership for Development
“We can create peace through partnership”
Girls worldwide say “Together we can change our world”

IGG GAT Resource
IGG has taken on the challenge from WAGGGS and has developed this GAT resource
pack, in conjunction with Plan Ireland* for the use of our members. We hope that, by
taking part in the activities in this GAT pack, the girls in your Unit will be informed,
inspired and empowered to find out more and to join millions around the world in
acting for change.
A Global Action Theme (GAT) badge syllabus has been developed that the girls can earn
by completing a range of activities based on the various MDG topics.
Aims of the GAT badge
The aims of the GAT badge are to
• enable IGG members to learn about the MDGs through non-formal education
• support girls and young women in their personal development
• encourage community action at a local, national and global level
• fulfil IGG’s mission to enable girls and young women to develop to their fullest
potential as responsible citizens of the world
• reinforce IGG’s public image as a leading youth organisation for girls and young
women
Levels
The GAT Badge curriculum contains many activities on each of the 8 MDGs. There are
three levels of GAT badge – bronze, silver and gold.
Ladybirds and Brownies can earn a bronze GAT badge to show that they have a
basic understanding of the WAGGGS Global Action Theme
Guides and Senior Branch members can earn a silver GAT badge to show that they
understand the WAGGGS Global Action Theme and have taken actions towards
making their world a better place
Guides or Senior Branch members with a particular interest in the Millennium
Development Goals can pursue independent research and projects and apply to
WAGGGS for a Gold GAT badge to show that they feel deeply passionate about
the WAGGGS Global Action Theme and are committed to changing their world for
the better
* Plan Ireland and the Irish Girl Guides have teamed up to focus attention on girls’
rights. Founded in 1937, Plan is one of the oldest and largest children’s development
charities in the world working in 50 of the world's poorest countries. Plan's education,
health, water, sanitation and livelihood projects work to lift millions of children and
their families out of poverty.
Plan’s ‘Because I am a Girl’ global campaign aims to raise awareness of girls’ rights in
the developing world, fight gender inequality and break the cycle of poverty for millions
of girls worldwide. For more information on Plan Ireland visit www.plan.ie
3

4
How to Use this Pack
Activities that introduce the Millennium Development Goals are provided on page 7.
It would be a good idea to try out some of these Introductory Activities with the girls in
your Unit first so that they get an overall view of the MDGs and the background to
them.
This book is divided into eight chapters. Each chapter focuses on one of the Millennium
Development Goals and provides background information and useful facts about that
goal, alongside case studies of positive action supplied by Plan Ireland.
Each chapter then includes a selection of appropriate activities for that MDG divided up
by Branch — Ladybird, Brownie, Guide and Senior Branch. The activities are allocated
to a particular Branch, but please feel free to look at the Branch above and the Branch
below you e.g. some of the Brownie activities would be suitable for Ladybirds and vice
versa.
You can start at any particular Millennium Development Goal and do not have to
complete them all (the requirements for gaining the GAT badge for each Branch are
outlined on page 6)
Guidance notes
Key things to remember when using the activities from the pack:
•
•
• It is important to know the girls in your Unit well before doing an activity.
Sensitivity may be needed with certain activities as issues may be raised for
particular girls.
• Allow time for debriefing after the activity session so that any questions or
concerns from the girls can be discussed (see next page for details).
• It would be helpful to set a group contract before using the pack with the girls,
so as to support the setting up of a safe space with respect, trust, confidentiality
as this will also encourage an open, caring and non-judgmental environment.
• Try to bring a positive and upbeat attitude to the evening. As the Leader, you
can play a key role in setting the tone.
• Encourage all the girls to take part, not only in the activity, but in the debriefing
as well. We all learn through doing.
• The success of the activity depends greatly on the girls’ participation and energy
or simply their form on that evening. Be sure to try again!
• Try to link the activities together as this will help the girls to see the bigger
picture.

Debriefing & evaluation
Debriefing with the girls may be required at the end of some activities to encourage
reflection, to have a discussion about the activity and to allow the girls to process what
they have learned. Sometimes the debriefing can be more of a learning experience
than the actual activity itself and can help to give the girls closure on the activity.
Why debriefing?
Some of the benefits of debriefing are that it:
• summarises information learned in the activity
• encourages self-expression and reflection
• highlights key learning
• helps to make sense of the experience
• encourages observation, insight and general awareness both during and after the
activity
• shows that we care about the girls’ experiences and feelings during and after the
activity
• provides a forum to give the girls facts and information around the topic
•
The Leader’s role in debriefing is to guide the discussion process, adding or interpreting
information if necessary, but she should try to avoid drawing conclusions or forming a
generalisation. It is important that the girls feel free to voice their opinions and that
these are heard.
The general type of questions used to help create discussion during the debriefing
would be
• How do you feel?
• What happened?
• What did you learn?
• How does it relate to the real world?
• What if?
• Where do we go from here?
5

How to Earn a GAT Badge
The IGG Distribution Centres have
bronze and silver GAT badges in stock
which you can purchase as soon as your
girls have completed the minimum
requirements for these levels.
Bronze is the basic badge—showing that
the girl has a basic understanding of
the WAGGGS Global Action Theme.
Silver is the advanced badge—showing
that the girl understands the WAGGGS
Global Action Theme and has taken
actions towards making her world a
better place.
Ladybirds can earn a bronze GAT badge by completing all the Ladybird
activities in any 3 MDGs
Brownies can earn a bronze GAT Badge by completing at least 3 Brownie
activities from any 4 MDGs
Guides can earn a silver GAT badge by completing any 2 Guide activities
from all 8 MDGs
Senior Branch members can earn a silver GAT badge by completing any
2 Senior Branch activities from all 8 MDGs.
Guides or Senior Branch members with a particular interest in the subject of Millennium
Development Goals can pursue independent research and projects and apply to
WAGGGS for a Gold GAT badge.
Gold is the specialist badge—this shows that the Guide or Senior Branch member feels
deeply passionate about the WAGGGS Global Action Theme and is committed to
changing her world for the better.
6

Introduce MDGs to the girls
These activities will help you begin to find out about the MDGs in general.
Do 1 or 2 of these activities before moving on to the chapters dedicated to specific MDGs.
Younger Members
• Bingo! On a 3 x 4 grid, the Leader writes different GAT topics and messages. She
calls out the phrases and the girls cross them off. If a girl has a complete line
crossed off, she shouts ‘Bingo!’ to win the game.
• The Leader makes a giant jigsaw using Girls worldwide say “together we can
change our world” and other GAT messages, and then decorates it with her own
pictures. She cuts it up and asks the girls to put it together.
• The Leader makes flash cards of each MDG and GAT message. She makes a
corresponding card showing a picture or phrase associated with the topic. Flash
card sets could have a single word or phrase to depict the MDG. Play a game with
the girls like Snap! to match the pairs. Older members could make sets for
younger members.
• The Leader makes a floor puzzle using WAGGGS messages, MDG topics and
pictures. She asks the girls to match them up.
• The girls are asked to invent a song, dance, shout or movement sequence around
the GAT message “Together we can change our world”.
Older Members
• In teams, the girls are asked to agree on how to depict several MDGs by mime,
movement or dance. When the Leader says ‘start’, a team shows the first one
after which the other girls guess which MDG was depicted and why; on ‘scene
change’ the performers change to another MDG.
• The girls are asked to design a badge or piece of jewellery or a friendship bracelet
using the eight MDG colours from the GAT Badge.
• Choose two MDGs that affect Ireland and write a five minute radio talk about
them. What connects them? How can the problem be tackled? Try to broadcast
your talk on local radio or perform it to your Unit.
• Sit in a circle. To start the game, the Leader whispers a GAT message or topic in
the ear of one of the girls. They are asked to pass the message around the circle.
The final player should tell the group what she has heard. Is it the same as the
message at the beginning? Try again!
• Make a word puzzle using the GAT topics and test it with your Unit.
.
7

8
girls worldwide say
“together we can end
extreme poverty and hunger”
Introduction to MDG 1
Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Girls worldwide say: Together we can end extreme poverty and hunger
One of the aims of the first MDG is that we work together to reduce by half the number
of people living on less than US $1 by 2015.
Another aim is to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all,
including women and young people.
What does it mean?
Today, roughly 1.2 billion people live on less
than 1 US dollar per day. These people are
extremely poor. They don’t have enough money
to buy food, clothes or to rent a house.
Extremely poor people easily get sick and often
die unnecessarily. For example, on any given
day 22,000 children die. Extremely poor people
have less access to health, education and other
services. Problems of hunger, malnutrition and
disease affect the poorest in society. The
poorest are also typically marginalized (put to
the side) from society and have little
representation or voice in public and political
debates, making it even harder to escape
poverty. (Who speaks out on behalf of girls?)
Did you know?
1. Poverty in all countries always hits
children, especially girls, the hardest.
2. One third of deaths – some 18 million
people a year or 50,000 per day – are
due to poverty. That’s 270 million
people since 1990, the majority women
and children, about the same as the
population of the U.S.
3. Every year more than 10 million children
die of hunger and preventable diseases –
that’s 30,000 per day and one every 3
seconds.
4. In all countries – including developed
countries – there are families living in
conditions which are below the
acceptable standard of living in that
country.
5. Approx. 14.1 % of the Irish population
are “at risk of poverty”
Poverty in the world
Around the world, poverty has always been present. Today, the most under-nourished
children are in Southern Asia while the poorest countries are in Africa.
Ask your girls what they think the poorest countries in the world are? The answers are
on the next page.

The poorest countries in the world are….
1. Zimbabwe
2. The Democratic Republic of Congo
3. Burundi
… Ireland is the 10 th richest country in the world...
However, even in a rich country, like Ireland, there is a big difference between the life
of rich people and poor people. For example, in Ireland there are at least 5000
homeless people. These people sleep on the street at night, do not eat everyday and
beg on the street to be able to buy food or water.
Country spotlight: Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is the poorest country in the world.
Thousands of young Zimbabweans take the
dangerous journey across the South African
border every month in search of a better life -
only to experience abuse from their employers,
the police and traffickers.
Plan Zimbabwe's income-generating projects,
skills training and awareness-raising campaigns
are giving young Zimbabweans an alternative to
migration and a chance to break the cycle of poverty.
Plan Project
Mutasa, Eastern Zimbabwe
A Plan-supported gardening project set up in 1991
is now producing enough food to feed a 39 family
strong community while also raising income to
pay for their children's school fees. The gardens
feature 30 fish ponds and the main crops grown
are yams, beans, sugar cane, bananas and maize.
In the 20 years the project has been running many
in the community have benefited with more than
600 fish now living in the ponds. The main fish
produced are red-breasted breams which help
feed families in the community. Any leftover
crops and fish are taken to the market, to sell, in
order to raise money to put the family’s children
through school.
There are risks associated with establishing such gardens, mainly the risk of pests and
predators stealing the crops and fish produced. Plan has helped here too, providing
fencing materials that can be used to protect the gardens and by supplying agricultural
training and advice to the community. The gardens have been so successful that
neighboring communities are now copying the project - growing crops, sharing
knowledge and reaping the benefits.
9

… Did you know that???...
10
Girls’ perspective
The majority of extremely poor people are girls or women living
in developing countries. This is because they have less power in
their societies and are considered to be less important. In many
countries, boys and girls are valued differently and a preference
for sons over daughters is evident in how girls are fed, clothed,
respected and celebrated.
⇒ The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is the international
agency that works to make sure people have regular access to
enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives.
⇒ Barnardos is the Irish based NGO that supports poor children in
Ireland whose well-being is under threat.
Imagine what it could mean to be a girl and live
with less than a dollar a day… You would not be able
to eat regularly, to drink water when you are thirsty or to
go inside when it is raining. Extremely poor girls do not have
the chance to have a hot shower or brush their hair in the
morning, they can not wash their clothes when they are
dirty or buy new clothes to wear on their first day in school.
MDG1 is connected to the basic Child’s right to Food
CRC 24, ICESCR 11, UDHR 25
States shall work hard to ensure that children live in good condition, eat enough food to
grow healthy, have appropriate clothing to wear and the size of their house is adequate for
them and their family . States shall learn new techniques to cultivate and distribute food
so children and adults have enough food to eat and are not suffering from hunger

Five Foods
AIM: To think about what you’re eating and why
TIME: 15 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: worksheet per Ladybird and pencils
Ask your Ladybirds to make a list of five foods they ate yesterday on the worksheet
below. Ask them to consider whether it was because they were hungry or just because
they wanted to eat. Ask them how they would feel if they could only have eaten one of
those things yesterday.
Make a list of five foods you ate yesterday.
HEALTHY NOT
HEALTHY
I JUST
WANTED
TI
FOOD I WAS
HUNGRY
Mark why you ate the foods
11
LADYBIRDS - MDG1

LADYBIRDS - MDG1
Rich Rabbit, Poor Rabbit
AIM: To show the Ladybirds how unfairly things can be shared out in the world.
TIME: 15 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Sample shop items, counters to represent Euros.
WHAT TO DO:
1. Divide Ladybirds into two groups—Rich rabbits and poor rabbits.
2. Leaders set up some shops – grocery, toyshop and music shop. Display pictures of
different items and each item is between one and three euro to buy.
3. Give the rich rabbits 10 Euro each - the poor rabbits one euro each.
4. Ask all the rabbits to hop around and choose what they want to buy.
5. Afterwards discuss with the girls what it felt like to be a rich rabbit or a poor
rabbit.
Plastic Bag Football
AIM: To show how children in poverty learn to be creative with what they have to play
with.
TIME: 15 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Plastic bags and Newspaper
WHAT TO DO:
In some countries children have to make their own games from what they can find on
the streets. There is no money for them to buy toys or computer games.
Introduce the idea of the football made of plastic bags – as used widely in Africa.
1. Scrunch up some newspaper and make it into a tight ball the size of a tennis ball.
This will form the centre of the football.
2. Put the ball of newspaper in a plastic bag and twist the top of the bag tight.
3. Use the rest of the non-twisted bag to wrap round the ball again – do this until
you’ve run out of bag, and then tie the ends together tightly.
4. Keep putting the ball in more bags, twisting and tying, until the ball reaches the
size you want it to be.
5. Use a strong bag for the final layer.
6. Tie string to the tied ends of the last bag and wrap it around the ball in all
directions, to make the ball really strong. Secure the ends with a knot.
Now you have a ball, what game will you play?
12

Less Than a Dollar a Day
AIM: To show the girls how difficult it is to live on a dollar a day.
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Cards with Food Produce Names and Prices
WHAT TO DO:
After discussing the MDGs, divide the girls into Sixes and give each group, the following
statement on a piece of Card.
“More than 30 per cent of children in developing countries – about 600 million – live
on less than US $1 a day”
• Please convert the US $1 into currency girls understand e.g. = approx 69 cent
depending on the currency value when you are doing this activity.
• Also give them a card with the current/lowest price for the following food items:
Milk, Bread, Rice, Pasta, Cereal, Meat, Vegetables etc.
• Ask the girls to have a chat among them to see what food they could buy for a
week for that amount of money.
• After a few minutes bring them back together into the big circle to see what food
suggestions they have for that amount of money.
Fair Play
AIM: To raise awareness of the idea of unequal distribution of wealth around the world.
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Tray/Table, sufficient small food items to fit on the tray/table.
WHAT TO DO:
• Split into two groups.
• One team has twice as many players as the other.
• Lay out about 15 small items of food on a tray or table.
• Players have two minutes, trying to memorise them.
• Then the objects are covered and the players must write as many down as they
can. The small group are those with access to resources, so each of them has a
pen/ pencil each, a sheet of paper, a chair, and perhaps even sits close to the
objects; the larger group has only one pencil and has to stand some distance
away.
• After the game, discuss how the two groups felt being treated so differently.
• Was it fair to do it this way? Can they think of examples when life is like this for
their community or other communities?
13
BROWNIES - MDG 1

BROWNIES - MDG 1
Learn About a Country
Ask the older Brownies to learn about a country in sub-Saharan Africa, SE Asia or
Central America. Maybe they could find a book that tells them about children’s lives
there.
They could do the following:
• Describe to the Unit what it might be like to live in poverty there?
• Make up a short play about what it might be like to live in poverty there and
perform it for the Unit.
Life Game
AIM: To show the girls how conflict affects people’s access to food.
TIME: 20 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Cards with situations on them. Bowl of fruit pieces or sweets.
WHAT TO DO:
1. Everyone stands in a circle, with sweets or small pieces of fruit in the centre.
2. Each Brownie is given a card with a situation on it.
3. Make up a variety of cards (you can double up on them ) with various situations on
them plus the number of sweets a Brownie is allowed e.g. (war widow with 3
children and very low income / 3 sweets)
4. Everyone compares how many sweets they have at the end of the session.
5. Discuss the different ways conflict can affect people’s access to food.
Quality of Life Poster
AIM: To visually show the girls what difference education, health and wealth makes to
a growing child.
TIME: 20 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Large sheets. Coloured pens/pencil.
WHAT TO DO:
Ask the Brownies to draw a picture of a girl – it could be themselves - in the middle of a
piece of paper. On one side draw what her life will be like in ten year’s time if she has
access to education, health care, good housing, food, etc. And on the other side, what
her life will be if she does not have these things.
14

Brownie Hunger Wordsearch
Find the following words in the Wordsearch:
HUNGER MONEY POOR WAR FLOUR
MAIZE WAGGGS POVERTY CORN FOOD
DOLLAR WATER VEGETABLE SUN BEANS
Z P N P S U N Y U W
V O F O O D F Z M A
E O L V M A I Z E G
G R O E Q R S G W G
E R U R I C E S A G
T A R T X M O N T S
A L C Y E O P A E Y
B L O H U N G E R U
L O R X D E T B C X
E D N P A Y F W A R
15
BROWNIES - MDG 1

BROWNIES - MDG 1
What Would You Do?
AIM: To help the girls understand what poverty would feel like.
TIME: 20 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Copies of Worksheet below.
This activity can be done in pairs as it may be difficult for an individual Brownie to
complete it on her own. It might be an idea to pair older Brownies with younger girls,
to help them along.
WHAT TO DO:
Give each pair a copy of the worksheet below.
Ask each pair of girls to ask themselves this question in relation to each box and then
write down their thoughts.
Some points while doing this activity
Ask the girls to decide how they would feel if they were poor or were hungry.
What would they think of this situation?
What would they need?
What would they want but not necessarily need?
When they are finished they could join with another 2 girls and discuss their statements
with each other and how they would cope. This larger group can take this exercise a
step further by starting another sheet and putting all their ideas together. They will be
able to see how some of the thoughts and feelings will be the same.
16
“If YOU were living in poverty and hungry what would YOU do?”
FEEL
THINK
NEED
WANT

Uneven Distribution
AIM: Shows the girls how unevenly food is distributed between those with money and
those who have no money.
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Seeds/Beads. – Food items with the prices written on them.
WHAT TO DO:
Divide into three groups. Give one group 20 beads (seeds or beans), one group 10 beads
and the final group one bead each. Display food items (flour, bread, potatoes but also
sweets, expensive spices, etc.) and put price tags on them. Ask each group what they
would buy if this was all the money they had.
• Mix the groups up. How might they help each other?
• How could governments help people living in poverty?
• Create a menu for a two day excursion. Make sure that your meal choices
contain a good balance of nutritious foods and work out how much they
cost per person and day. Compare those costs with what people living in
extreme poverty have to spend per day.
Surviving on a Budget
AIM: To see how little you can live on and to learn the value of money
TIME: 30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Pens and Paper, Lidl/Supervalu leaflets from newspaper etc.
WHAT TO DO:
• Work out how much was spent by each girl that day or that week.
• Imagine if you had to spend less than $1 (69 cents) in a day—what things that
you’ve listed above could you no longer afford?
• Write a list of what you need each day and how much it costs. Prioritise the list to
see what you could buy each day.
• Work in groups and decide what you will live without and why.
• When you decide on something that you could live without—create a consequence
chain for that decision e.g.. Leaking roof – no money to fix it – the rain came in –
family got sick.
LEARN MORE/RESEARCH:
Find out about WAGGGS call to action for World Food Day on 16 October and
International Day for Eradication of Poverty on 17 October
17
GUIDES – MDG 1

GUIDES – MDG 1
Going Round in Circles
AIM: To show the girls that with help, the cycle of poverty can be stopped.
TIME: 40 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: 2 sets of cards with life situation on them – see below.
WHAT TO DO:
See below a number of situations in a fictional story about the life of a girl living in
poverty in a developing country. Number each person one to six. Those with the same
numbers form into teams. Each team is assigned a corresponding situation from the
girl’s life below.
1. You do a lot of housework – sweeping, cooking, cleaning and fetching water.
2. You leave school because your family can afford to send only your brothers.
3. You get married aged 14.
4. You are pregnant.
5. You find out the HIV virus has been passed from you to your baby girl.
6. Your daughter is growing up – you wish she could have had a better chance in life.
The teams take turns to act out their situations for everyone else. Discuss the girl’s life
afterwards. In what way could her particular cycle of poverty be broken and stopped
being passed down to her daughter? How could the outside world help her? Afterwards,
give the teams the revised situations below to act out again.
1. Your family make sure the housework is shared evenly and you have time to make
friends and go to school.
2. You stay in education and learn to read and write, and find out about the world
around you.
3. You get married once you have finished your education, and feel a lot more
confident in taking an equal role in the marriage.
4. You become pregnant when you are ready, as an adult, and are more confident
and knowledgeable about how to take care of your child, and have other adult
friends who are there to help.
5. Thanks to a good education, you know how to avoid contracting HIV and therefore
do not risk passing it on to your child. Your knowledge also ensures that you help a
friend living with HIV receive antiretroviral drugs to prevent it passing on to her
child.
6. Your daughter is growing up – she is going to school and wants to become a
doctor. Meanwhile, you and a group of other women have begun a small
embroidery business with the help of a small loan from a charity, and all have
great ambitions!
18
MDGS CAN HELP END THE CYCLE OF POVERTY.

Home-made recipe for oral rehydration solution
AIM: To show the girls how a simple receipe of readily available ingredients can help
stop dehydration.
TIME: 30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Ingredients for making solutions. Mixing Bowls.
WHAT TO DO:
- Each girl is given the following ingredients:
1 teaspoon of salt
8 teaspoons of sugar
1 litre of clean water
- Ask the girl to mix all the ingredients together until the salt and sugar are completely
dissolved.
- The girls can taste the solution
- Ask them what they think this solution is. If they do not guess, explain that this is a
simple solution that is given to children in poor countries when they suffer from
dehydration and drinking water is not available.
- Ask the girls to run or do some physical exercise for 5/10 minutes and test whether
the solution is working
Learn about Poverty through Pictures
AIM: To show the girls visually what poverty looks like
TIME: 30/40 minutes.
WHAT YOU NEED: Large sheet, glue and some spare photos that represent poverty in
case some of the girls forget theirs.
WHAT TO DO:
• Ask the girls to collect pictures that represent poverty for them. The pictures can
be from Ireland, from Europe, from outside Europe and can represent poverty for
a variety of groups/themes (children, adults, animals, the environment, cities…)
• They can look into their family books and magazines as well as use the internet.
• Girls are asked to print or photocopy the pictures and bring them to the next
meeting.
• During the meeting each girl will present one or more picture they have collected.
They will talk about where the picture was taken and when, who or what is
affected by poverty and what could be done to overcome poverty…
• The picture can be glued to a big poster and left to display at the meeting place .
19
GUIDES - MDG 1

SENIOR BRANCH – MDG 1
MDG 1 - In your Community
• Contact your local SVP and perhaps invite a speaker to visit your group. Find out
about the causes of homelessness. Find out how many people live on the streets in
Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway, how many children live on the streets in
poverty in Ireland?
• Become a member of SVP and volunteer in a local charity shop – each person in
the group could do a Saturday in the shop.
MDG 1 – Internationally
• Have a debate in your group on one of the following topics:
20
“The root cause of famine is not a shortage of food”
“Food aid leads to more hunger in the long term”
Each side should have at least 2 people. Each side should have a well-researched
factual basis for their argument and everyone in the group should participate.
The debate, questions and conversation and information sharing should take at
least 40 minutes.
• Go to your local supermarket and investigate Fair Trade food options. Is it
possible to do a full weekly shop and that any products bought from developing
countries are Fair Trade products? What are the benefits and advantages of Fair
Trade? Prepare a 3 course menu using only Fair Trade ingredients
For Young Leaders
Make up and lead a younger Guiding group in a game that teaches them about MDG 1.
For EXAMPLE
Poverty – How the world’s food is distributed and the fairness of this.
• Explain how poverty affects a very large number of people, and wealth is shared
around a very small group. Play the following game and see if the girls understand
a little more clearly.
• Divide your girls into 3 teams and have a relay race. After the game, join the
teams that came first and second together into one team and divide the team that
came last into two teams.
• Ask the teams how they feel – perhaps the biggest team is feeling quite powerful
and successful!
• Hand out goodies/rewards– one bag per team, regardless of size. Ask the girls to
divide the goodies out evenly, now ask the girls how they are feeling. Maybe the
biggest team is not feeling so powerful now. Emphasize the unfairness of it.
• Did either of the smaller teams choose to share?
• Now put all the goodies together and share properly

girls worldwide say
“education opens doors
for all girls and boys”
Introduction to MDG 2
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education
Girls worldwide say: education opens doors for all girls and boys.
“Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest
the cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.”
Kofi Annan
What does it mean?
The aim of the first MDG is that we work together so boys
and girls everywhere in the world will be able to
complete primary education. It is proven that for every
extra year that a girl spends in school her income
increases by 20%. Education is vital for combating poverty
and disease. It creates more opportunities for people and
gives them a stronger voice in society.
Access to education is a problem everywhere..
Today, only 87 out of 100 children in developing regions
are able to finish their primary education. In half of the
least developed countries (poorest countries in the world)
at least two out of five children leave school before
reaching the last grade.
Burkina Faso has the lowest literacy rate in the world
where only 23% of people can read and write.
DID YOU KNOW?
• Currently there are more
than 100 million children of
primary school age not in
school.
• More than one in four adults
worldwide cannot read or
write and two-thirds are
women.
• A single year of primary
school increases the wages
people earn later in life by 5-
15 per cent for boys and even
more for girls.
• UNESCO is the UN Agency
devoted to promoting
education as a fundamental
human right and to improve
the quality of education
Why don’t children finish primary school?
There may be many reasons why children do not finish
primary school. Sometimes it is because school facilities
are not physically available or are too far away from children’s homes. Or else it may
be because families do not have enough money to pay the school fees or need the
children to work during the day in order to be able to buy enough food. It is also
difficult to go to school when children are victims of conflict, displacement or natural
disasters. In these cases, school facilities may not be available and, even if they are,
education may not be considered as high a priority as nutrition, security or shelter. In
rich countries, like Ireland, sometimes children that arrive from other parts of the
world - voluntarily or not - face difficulties in accessing education either because
teachers do not use their same language or because education is not culturally
acceptable to migrant families.
21

Girls’ Perspective
22
ﺲﻧﺎﺘﻨﺳ اﺬه أﺮﻘﺗ نأ ءﺎﺴﻧ ﻊﺑرأ ﻞآ ﻦﻡ ةﺪﺣاو 2011 مﺎﻋ ﻦﻤﻓ
It is 2011 and 1 in 4 women can read this sentence.
How do you feel when you can’t read this sentence?
This is a huge denial of the basic right to education for half of the
world’s population. While poor children are much less likely to go
to school than rich children, girls are much less likely to go to
school than boys. Now imagine you are a poor girl! They are one of the most
disadvantaged groups in the world.
In Mali for example a poor girl is four times more likely to be out of school than a rich
girl of the same age and throughout Africa. While there are many barriers for boys and
girls that keep them out of school, some of these barriers are unique to girls.
Why can’t girls go to school?
Some of the barriers that keep girls out of school are the amount of housework they
have to do and they often have to take care of younger siblings. It is women, not
planes, trucks or cars, that carry two thirds of goods in Africa and it is normal for them
to do a lot of the physical work such as carrying water. Also it is normal for girls to get
married young – sometimes as young as 12 or 13. Early marriage and early pregnancy
are two of the main factors than lead to girls dropping out of school.
Cultural and social norms means that boys’ education is often more valued than girls’.
If parents can only afford to send one child to school, they are much more likely to
send the boy. Additionally, even if girls do go to school, there may be barriers to
learning within the school environment. Teachers are more likely to discriminate
against girls and treat them poorly and girls are more vulnerable to violence from both
teachers and from other students. Parents are often afraid to send their daughters to
school because of the dangers they face both on the way to school and within schools.
There are few measures in place to protect girls from such dangers.
If girls don’t go to school, they don’t reach their full potential or gain from the benefits
of school. When girls stay in education longer, they are more likely to marry later and
are more likely to have smaller and healthier families. Educated women are more
protected from HIV/Aids and from human trafficking. A girl that finishes primary
education is three times less likely to contract HIV/Aids than a girl without education.
Educated women are more empowered, have more input into decision making and are
better able to demand their rights. As well as being healthier themselves, their future
children are also more likely to be healthy. Children born to educated mothers are
twice as likely to survive past the age of five. Finally, the girl will be more
economically secure as education allows better access to jobs and higher incomes. An
educated mother is more likely to send her own children and daughters to school so
they can also reap the benefits of education. However, without education, girls, and
their future families are more likely to remain stuck in a poverty trap, as are their
children.

Country Spotlight: Togo
In Togo Plan Ireland build Girl Friendly
Schools. A GFS means that girls can attend
school without fear of violence or
discrimination because they are girls.
Sometimes girls do not attend school
because they have to mind younger siblings.
In order to address this Plan build preschools
and train the staff to work there.
This means that the children’s parents can
go to work or do household chores while the
older girls go to school.
Some girls are embarrassed to go to school when they get older because they do not
want to share a bathroom with boys. Or else they are afraid that something may
happen to them if they use a mixed bathroom. In order to address this all GFS have
separate boys’ and girls’ bathrooms.
In some schools violence against girls was causing girls not to attend. In order to
counteract this Plan organize training for the teachers in alternative teaching methods.
Plan Project
This picture shows children celebrating access to schools in remote area of
Ghana. Plan Ghana works closely with the Ghana Education Service to improve
teaching and learning in schools. Teachers are supported on a regular basis to
go through in-service training with recognised teaching institutions.
To involve the community in running the schools,
community members take turns to participate in
the school management committees. Plan Ghana
also provides schools with sanitation and rain
catchment facilities which collect and store rain
water for use during the rest of the year, libraries,
text books as well as teaching and learning materials,
all of which significantly contribute to improving
children’s academic performance.
MDG2 is connected to the basic child ‘s right to Education
CRC Art 28, CESCR Art 13
All children shall enjoy the right to good quality education
Primary Education shall be free and compulsory for all children and Secondary Education shall
be available and accessible to all children. States shall encourage all children to go to school to
the highest level they can
23

LADYBIRDS - MDG 2
Explaining to Ladybirds:
Going to school makes life better for children. Learning to read, write and do maths
gives people a chance to get a job and earn money to buy things. A school means
friends, art, fun, sports.
Many children in the world have no school to go to – so they stay at home all day. In
some countries you have to pay money to go to school and if their family have no
money, the children must stay at home. Some children are not allowed to go to school
because their parents need them to work on their farms.
Education means being taught in a school.
Daily Duties
AIM: To look at the differences in a girl’s life in Ireland and girl’s life in India.
TIME: 20/30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Copies of the Daily Tasks list below.
WHAT TO DO:
Everyone sits in a circle.
The Leader begins by naming a task that the Ladybirds do during the day (e.g. I clean
my room, I do the dishes). Each Ladybird then names a job that they have to do at
home. What are their most favourite and least favourite tasks?
Now read out the list of tasks below that some girls in India have to do.
• Do the Ladybirds do any of these?
• Would they like to do any of these?
• Discuss why some girls in India might have to work hard.
You could make up some actions for some of these tasks to see if the Ladybirds can
guess which jobs you are acting out. Or see if the Ladybirds can come up with actions
for some of the jobs.
DAILY TASKS FOR GIRLS IN INDIA
Sweeping and cleaning the house
Washing pots and dishes
Lighting the fire and cooking
Fetching water
Collecting wood for the fire
Collecting food for the animals
Washing clothes
Collecting cow dung for fuel
Feeding the cows
Looking after brothers and sisters
Helping in the fields
Cleaning the school classroom
Making tea for the teachers
Taking the goats to graze
Playing
24

Story Time
AIM: To show the girls how difficult it would be to have no electricity.
TIME: 30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Nothing
WHAT TO DO:
Memory Solomon is seven years old and she lives in a country called Malawi. Malawi is
in Africa and is a very poor country. This is what her life is like;-
I like school
Before school I do chores
I sweep and fetch water
I cook lunch for myself and my sisters. We take potatoes to school for lunch.
We don’t have electricity at school. My favourite lesson is English, sometimes we all
have to tidy and sweep the school.
When school is over, I go back home and I help my parents on the farm. Sometimes I do
the washing; sometimes I help my grandmother with her goats. We rarely eat eggs or
milk or meat because they are so expensive. Sometimes I help with the cooking. My
favourite meal is nsima (maize porridge) and potatoes. When my chores are finished I
get together with my friends, I have nice friends.
When it gets dark I do my homework, we don’t have electricity. I want a job when I
finish school. I’d like to be a driver or a nurse. I need a good job so I can help my
family get enough food.
Discuss – Imagine what it would like to be in school or at home if you didn’t have
electricity. Do you think it would be more difficult to do your homework?
Learn something new -
People in Malawi speak Chichewa and English.
English Chichewa
Hello Moni
Goodbye Ndapita
Please Chonde
Thank you Zikomo
25
LADYBIRDS - MDG 2

BROWNIES - MDG 2
Stick it!
AIM: To understand the importance of education by looking at the value of education
as one of the basic human rights.
TIME: 30/40 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Nine stickers with the following words on each sticker : EDUCATION –
SHELTER – FOOD - PEOPLE YOU LOVE - SAYING WHAT YOU THINK – RESPECT – RELIGION –
FREEDOM - PROTECTION FROM HARM
WHAT TO DO:
• Give each (9) players a sticker while the other members sit to one side and watch.
• Each player takes a chair and puts it in the middle of the room.
• Play music while the players walk around the room. When you stop the music,
everyone must sit down.
Remove a chair and play again. Whoever is left standing must go out. However,
everyone watching the game has 60 seconds to decide if they can live without
whatever that player represents. If not, they must swap that player for someone else.
Repeat the process until everyone is out. Who was the final player? Why is this,
the most important human right?
Learn this song about Children's Rights
26
Some Rights In This World by Jan Nigro
from www.songsforteaching.com
CHORUS
I’ve got some rights, some rights in this world.
You’ve got some rights, some rights in this world.
Just by being born, every boy and girl,
Automatically got some rights in this world.
I must be free to think my thoughts,
And to say what I must say;
To believe in what I believe,
And I don’t believe that anyone should take it all away, Hey:
CHORUS
I need to feel safe in the streets
And at home and school each day.
I’ve got to love who I naturally love,
And if someone tells me different, this is what I’m gonna say, Hey:
CHORUS
Now, there are people on this earth
Who are still not treated fair.
No, they don’t have the rights they deserve
So let’s sing this song for everybody, everywhere.
CHORUS

What is Needed to go to School?
AIM: To make the Brownies think about the basics needed to enable a child,
particularly those from less well-off communities or less developed countries, to go to
school.
TIME: 20/30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Wordsearch below.
WHAT TO DO:
• Give each Brownie a copy of the Wordsearch to complete.
• The word search could lead to a discussion with the Brownies about school and
what they hope to achieve and to a comparison with children in other countries
who are less fortunate. Use the stories below to prompt a discussion while the
girls complete their wordsearchs.
For Example:
Twelve year old Grace lives with her father Joseph and her sister Michelle in Zimbabwe. They
collect plastic and glass bottles from the rubbish dumps around Harare where they live. It can
take them up to three days to gather enough to sell in the local market to raise the money
they need to survive. The girls’ mother left them four years ago so they have worked with
their father ever since, not only foraging for bottles but doing the housework as well.
Zimbabwe is one of the few places where they have to pay to go to school and, as they barely
make enough money to survive, they cannot go to school. Grace is desperate to go to school
and dreams of becoming a hairdresser.
Christine, who is 14 years old, lives in a camp for displaced people in Haiti since the
earthquake destroyed her home. She had to miss school for three months following the
earthquake and although her text books and notebooks are tattered, she is determined to
become a doctor. Her 15 year old brother Jean Renee has had to leave school and go to work
in a garage as her mother could not afford to keep all of her three children in school. Jean
Renee hopes to be a mechanic and the youngest sister Afenyoose, aged 9, would love to go to
school but must stay at home because it is too expensive and her mother had to decide which
of her three children she could afford to pay for.
See zimbabweschildren.org/index,php/grace and www.unicef.org/infobycountry/haiti
B V I E P W X M S L I P U P
Y U K A W C Q O K C M V P I
F D I S T E P E N C I L N M
P C S L A H J L I F D P O I
A C B N D L I K B Q J N P K
P H C H A I V R T U E D Z R
E N K O H E N E P Y W M U E
R C J D C U L G B P A F M H
A U M N S I I A R T T L J C
M U B O O K S D G O E O W A
P N E Z E W P I L D R I D E
D T T X Y N M B U E L B A T
BUILDING
BOOKS
TEACHER
TABLE
CHAIR
TOILET
PAPER
PENCIL
PEN
PUPILS
WATER
MONEY
27
BROWNIES - MDG 2

GUIDES – MDG 2
Crowded Class
AIM: To show how difficult it is to learn in a crowded noisy classroom.
TIME : 30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED : Pens and Paper.
WHAT TO DO:
Explore what it would be like to be in a very crowded classroom
• Squeeze as many people as possible on to a bench or into a small square area on
the floor.
• Ask everyone to write down their names and provide only one piece of paper and
two pens for the exercise. Then divide the group in two, give one group one piece
of paper and one pen that they must share all to write their name. Give the other
group individual slips of paper and a pen each—who is finished first?
• Give half the Unit something to memorise, perhaps a poem or a set of objects,
while the other half makes as much noise as possible. How distracting was it?
Swap the groups around and try again.
• Discuss and compare these situations with conditions in their own school
Homemade Pencil Case
AIM: To show how girls and boys in developing countries don’t have any money to buy
even a new pencil case at the start of the school term.
TIME: 45/60 minutes.
WHAT YOU NEED: Old clean clothes, threads, and needles, zips of an appropriate
length.
WHAT TO DO:
In many developing countries, poor children cannot go to school because their families
are unable to afford basic school equipment—things that Irish pupils would take for
granted, such as pens, pencils, bags and notebooks.
Design and make pencil cases together. Reuse old, unwanted clothes such as jeans or
other garments made of thicker and tougher fabrics. To make a simple pencil case, fold
a square piece of fabric (20 cm x 20 cm) in half and sew up the two short edges, turn
inside out, then sew the zip on to the top.
While making the pencil cases, discuss together why it’s important to go to school and
what it might mean if you couldn't go.
28

Right to Learn
AIM: to explore education as a right and its importance to young people’s development
TIME: 45 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Sheets of paper and markers.
WHAT TO DO:
1. Give each person a piece of paper and markers. Give half the group a copy of
Adiatou’s story to read and ask the other half to think about a typical day in their
lives, from the time they wake up to the same time the next day.
2. Ask everyone to draw a large circle on their paper, divide this circle into hours of
the day and ask them to illustrate what they do during these hours. The people
with Adiatou’s story do this activity from her perspective. Segments could include
School, Sleep, Work, Hobbies or Homework. When everyone has completed their
daily clock, ask them to display and explain them. Highlight the similarities and
differences between the clocks.
Discuss with the group the following questions
* What would you like to change about your day?
* Would you like to swap places with Adiatou?
* What would you enjoy the most/least? What would you miss the most?
* What do you think the future would be like without a good education?
* What would you miss out on/not be able to do?
As a group make a list of all the benefits of having an education that the group can
think of. Form groups of 4 and ask the groups to create a slogan for an advertising
campaign, which highlights the value of having a good quality education and the
importance that everyone has the chance to get one.
When the slogans are complete, groups can present them and using a clapometer can
vote on the one they think is the catchiest. Groups cannot vote on their own work.
Display all of the slogans on the wall.
Adiatou’s Story
My name is Adiatou Issaka and I am 12 years old. I live with my family in Niger. I don’t
go to the local school even though it’s only a short distance away. I have never been
taught to read or write. My younger brother enrolled in school two years ago. He’s the
first in our family to go. In the morning, when my brother walks to school, I am already
hard at work. I spend most of my time, about 6 hours a day, pounding millet which is a
kind of grain. Sometimes the work is very, very hard because often I don’t have water.
That’s not my only task. I sweep the mud hut and compound where we live, go to the
well for water, fetch firewood and collect gandafoye leaves which are used to make
the sauce we eat with our meals. Sometimes I sell kopto leaves (a kind of cabbage) that
my older brother collects. I can make up to 300 francs a day (about €0.40). I feel sad
when my brother goes to school in the morning. He has taught me a few words of
French. Sometimes he asks me to go to school with him, but I have to say no. My
brother wants to be a teacher so he can share knowledge with everyone. I want to
learn to read and write too. I think my mother and father would allow me to go to
school if there was space there. But who would pound the millet?
(From Setting Our Sights on Rights)
29
GUIDES - MDG 2

GUIDES – MDG 2
Play Squiggles
AIM: Shows how important being able to read and write is to participate fully in
anything in life.
TIME: 15 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Copy of page 31 divided into 4 cards—1 card per group.
WHAT TO DO:
In many countries children, particularly girls, are unable to go to school and learn to
read and write.
• Divide the girls into four teams. Hand out pre-prepared simple instructions on
paper to three of the teams. The instructions should be for a game the girls are
already familiar with. The fourth team, however, gets a slip of paper with just
squiggles on it.
• Ask all the groups to read their instructions and then start playing their game,
swap the groups and games around, so more than one group experiences ‘
squiggles’
• Discuss how the groups with proper instructions get on
• Did they enjoy the activity?
• How did the group without ‘clear’ instructions get on?
• Did they feel a bit left out?
• Ask the girls to try and imagine not being able to read and write at all, when
everything written would make no sense and just look like squiggles.
• How many things can they think of, not just games, that they would be unable to
do without knowing how to read and write?
Count Every Girl
Think about your own school and ask the following questions: How many girls are in
your school, are any girls in your area excluded from school, why are they excluded,
how are the non-English speaking girls helped in your school?
Because you are a Girl
In your Patrols finish the following sentences:
• Because I am a Girl Guide I believe…..
• Because I am a girl I believe education....
• Because I go to school I.....
• When I finish school I......
30

Game 1
Simple Simon says “…..”
Pick one girl to be Simon.
Simon calls out instructions. For example Simon says “Put your hand on
your head”
Everyone must do this activity and so on. If Simon does not say “Simon
says” before the instruction then they must not do the activity. If they do
they are out.
Game 2
Dodge Ball.
Pick two girls to be “on”
The girls that are ‘on’ have a ball each; the rest of the girls must try to
avoid being hit with the balls.
Those that are hit, are out.
Game 3
Ship to Shore
Girls decide where the ship, shore and sea are. Someone is ‘on’ and they
call out ship, shore or sea and the girls run to there. The last one is out.
Game 4
31

SENIOR BRANCH – MDG 2
MDG 2 - In your Community
• Visit the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) website and watch a video about
illiteracy. As a group discuss what you think could be causes of illiteracy in
Ireland. In groups of 2-3 spend 2 hours walking around your local town or
community and 1 hour at home, while imagining you are illiterate. Afterwards
write one page about your experiences and difficulties during this time.
• Attend a free literacy awareness training session with NALA.
MDG 2 - Internationally
• Have a discussion about the different things which are necessary for educating
children. Is this MDG linked with other MDGs? Make a list of 8 barriers to primary
education in the developing world. For each of your barriers, think of one way in
which governments could solve these problems.
For Young Leaders
Make up and lead a younger Guiding group in a game that teaches them about MDG 2.
For EXAMPLE
Education based Game – “What’s in your School Bag?”
Get the girls to sit/stand in a circle. Ask one of the girls to begin the game, “I packed
my school bag and in it I put ....”, the next girl repeats the line and what the other girl
said, then adds something else.
For the older girls, the first girl says something beginning with A, the next girl says
something beginning with B and so on.
32

Introduction to MDG 3
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empowerment of women
Girls worldwide say: empowering girls will change our world.
What does it mean?
The aim is to remove gender difference in primary and secondary education preferably
by 2005 and at all levels by 2015.
There are four points that are used to measure progress towards the goal:
• The ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
• The ratio of literate women to men in the 15 to 24-year-old age group
• The share of women in waged employment in the non-agricultural sector
• The proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments - 14% of seats in
the Dail are women.
“Women hold up half the sky.” - Traditional Chinese saying
Women around the world:
In Africa, women perform 80% of the work associated
with rural domestic tasks including collecting water
and firewood, preparing and cooking meals,
processing and storing food and making household
purchases.
In the Caribbean women produce up to 80% of basic
foods.
However in many of these countries women are still
not allowed to own land.
In 15 EU countries women hold 20% of agricultural
land compared to 77% men and 3% government.
In India and Thailand, fewer than 10% of landowners
are women.
girls worldwide say
“empowering girls will
change our world”
Did you know?
• Women work two-thirds of the
world’s working hours, produce
half of the world’s food, and yet
earn only 10 per cent of the
world’s income and own less than
1 per cent of the world’s property.
• Of the 1.3 billion people living in
poverty around the world, 70 per
cent of them are women.
• In the least developed countries
nearly twice as many women over
the age of 15 are illiterate
compared to men.
33

Boys Perspective
34
Girls’ Perspective
In order for girls and women around the world to become empowered
and active in their society they must have the same
access to decision making opportunities as boys. In many
countries that Plan Ireland work in they specifically have
girl’s empowerment on their agenda.
It is equally important that boys and men learn to support girls and
women. Boys and men should care about gender equality because
girls’ rights are human rights. If they believe in justice and fairness
they may see that sometimes girls and women are not always
treated the same way or given the same opportunities that they are.
Country spotlight: Togo
Power is the
ability to shape
your life. The
lack of power is
one of the main
barriers that
prevent girls and
young women
from realizing
their rights and
escaping from
poverty.
Promoting Girls Leadership through football: Children in Togo often do not see their
rights fulfilled, and suffer from a lack of voice in society. Gender equality issues also
prevent girls from realising their full potential.
But Plan is running a project in 12 communities in Togo to promote girls’ leadership
through football. Also, the project allows the girls to improve their self-esteem,
physical fitness and their ability to speak to an audience whilst encouraging team
spirit.

Plan Project
Yutu is an 11 year old girl from Piyola.
She’s been the left wing of the Piyola girls’
football team since 2008.
“I experienced a big improvement in my fitness and
mental health. I don’t get ill anymore and I don’t get
as tired as I used to,” said Yutu.
The 12 teams of 36 players each are trained by female coaches to work as a team and
taught how to speak on stage about children’s rights issues, such as child trafficking,
and HIV/AIDS. Football tournaments are refereed by girls from the communities and are
held in 5 different districts of Togo.
“Since I started playing, I’ve overcome the shame, shyness and fear [of speaking on
stage],” added Yutu.
The coaches also receive regular training in sports entertainment and rules and
techniques of football to better support the girls’ learning and training.
Yutu said: “Now I have a voice in my family and this allows me to put the knowledge
I’ve gained of being a leader into practice. At school, I feel more comfortable because
I’m getting better results.”
What’s more, girls not in the team are responsible for producing and distributing "Right
Way", a magazine dedicated to the project’s activities.
“I’d like to invite other girls to follow suit and start playing football because it's a game
that I find fun, and its benefits are immense. Before, I thought only boys could play
football, but now that I play myself, I know that girls can do exactly the same things as
boys," said Yutu.
Girls talk to the public about children’s rights, equality and girls’ education by
performing drama sketches, singing songs and reading poems before they play matches
and at half time.
35

Did you know that…?
• In the WAGGGS’ Adolescent Health Global Survey, 82 per cent of
girls surveyed feel under pressure to look and dress in a certain
way. Thirty six per cent of girls began caring about how they
looked before the age of 12 years old.
• In its publication, the State of the World’s Children, UNICEF has identified that
involvement in girls’ organizations over extended periods has been identified as
having a positive impact on girls’ civic participation and counteracting societal
pressures, which can undermine self-esteem and self-confidence.
• UN Women is the international agency that strives to achieve gender equality
worldwide
• Two-thirds of children denied primary education are girls, and 75% of the world’s
876 million illiterate adults are women.
• When there is an emergency and food is given out, it is usually women who are
asked to collect food as it has been proven to be more likely that the food will be
fairly shared out afterwards.
MDG3 is connected to the child’s right to Equality and non-discrimination
CRC Art. 2, CEDAW Art. 1 and 2
States shall respect, protect and fulfil the rights of children without discrimination of any kind,
including gender discrimination
Gender discrimination means… any act made on the basis of sex that makes it difficult for
women and girls to enjoy their rights.
Gender equality means… that boys and girls shall be always treated equally at home, in
school, at the work place, when in the streets…
36

Explaining to Ladybirds: Mammies, daughters, sisters, grannies and aunties – they care
for us, love us, work for us and feed us. Half of all the people in the world are women,
ladies and girls and they have very important roles to play.
Learn the following song:
Can a Woman?
(Tune : “She’ll be coming round the mountain”)
Can a woman fly an airplane? Yes she can, yes she can!
Can a woman build a building? Yes she can, yes she can!
Can a woman fight a fire?
Can a woman change a tyre?
Can a woman lead a choir?
Yes she can, yes she can!
Can a woman be a lawyer? Yes she can, yes she can!
Can a woman fix an engine? Yes she can, yes she can!
Can a woman be a drummer?
Can a woman be a plumber?
Can she play ball in the Summer?
Yes she can, yes she can!
Can a woman be a doctor? Yes she can, yes she can!
Can a woman drive a tractor? Yes she can, yes she can!
Can a woman lead a nation?
Can she run a TV station?
Can she head a corporation? Yes she can, yes she can!
Just you wait until we’re older, then you’ll see,
We’ll be women in tomorrow’s history!
As we grow up through the years,
We’ll sing out loud and clear,
Can we start the process here?
Yes we can, yes we can!!
37
LADYBIRDS - MDG 3

LADYBIRDS - MDG 3
Important Irish Women
AIM: To introduce famous Irish women to the Ladybirds.
TIME: 20 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Enlarge copies of the pictures below.
WHAT TO DO:
Mary Robinson
• Mary Bourke was born in Ballina, County Mayo on 21 May 1944.
Her mammy and daddy were doctors.
• She married Nicholas Robinson in 1970. Together they have
three children.
• She was the seventh President of Ireland. Before she was
President she was a Barrister.
• She was the first female President of Ireland, serving from
1990 – 1997.
Mary McAleese
• Mary Leneghan was born on 27 June 1951. She is the oldest of
nine children.
• She married Martin McAleese in 1976. They have three
children: eldest daughter Emma and twins Justin and SaraMai.
• She was the eighth President of Ireland. Before she was
President she was a barrister and a journalist.
• Mary McAleese was the first Irish President to come from
Northern Ireland.
• She is Ireland's second female President and the world's first
woman to succeed another woman as President. She was first
elected President in 1997 and again in 2004
Sonia O’Sullivan
• Sonia O'Sullivan was born on 28 November 1969
in Cobh in County Cork.
• When Sonia was younger she was in the Brownies
in Cobh.
• She is married to Nic and they have two
daughters Ciara and Sophie. They live part of the
year in Melbourne, Australia and part of the year
in London.
• Sonia won a gold medal in the 5000 m at the
1995 World Athletics Championships and a silver
medal in the 5000 m at the 2000 Olympic Games and in the 1500m.
38

Voting
AIM: Explains why voting is important and that in some countries people are not
allowed to vote.
TIME: 30/40 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Mixture of games and crafts.
WHAT TO DO:
Explain to the girls that in some countries women are not allowed to vote.
Tell them how lucky we are in Ireland that both men and women can vote. They have
freedom of choice.
Explain the different methods of voting :
Display of hands.
Tell the girls that one way of voting is a display of hands. Get the Unit to vote
with their hands for the next game they want to play e.g. do they want to play
“Magic Shoes” or “Queenie, Queenie”. They can only choose one of them.Ask
whoever wants to play “Magic Shoes” to put up their hands. Count the number of
girls. Next ask whoever wants to play “Queenie, Queenie” to put up their hands.
Count them. Then play the game that the largest amount of people voted for.
Secret Ballot
Explain to the girls that, when their parents vote in an election, then that is by
secret ballot.
To show the Ladybirds how important making up their own minds is try the following:
Get the girls into pairs, one girl will make all the decisions for her partner; what to do
and when. Provide a choice of games or crafts in which one girl has to do what her
partner tells her to, and makes decision for her, such as:
• What to eat and drink
• Where to sit
• What/how to play (include a vote—where the girls in charge vote on behalf of
their partner)
About halfway through the meeting, you can switch over so they experience being the
decision maker and the follower. Then talk to the Ladybirds about their feelings at the
end of the meeting.
39
LADYBIRDS - MDG 3

BROWNIES - MDG 3
Feelgood Bookmark
AIM: To help the girls feel good about themselves.
TIME: 40 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Markers, Scissors, Card, Clear contact paper, a piece of card
measuring 2"x8" for each girl.
WHAT TO DO:
Each girl puts a small picture of herself in the middle of the card. She then writes
positive slogans on the card about herself.
For example, I am the best. I am kind. I will succeed etc. She can then decorate the
card before putting on the clear contact paper.
Careers
AIM: To demonstrate that girls can do any career they choose, even those that were
once considered to be male dominated.
TIME: 20 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Cards with the words” Male” and “Female” on them. Extra cards
with careers on them – see below.
WHAT TO DO:
• Place two cards marked male and female at the end of a room. At the opposite
end of the room place cards with the following suggested careers on the floor.
Doctor, Engineer, Vet, Plant operator, Teacher, Pilot, Mechanic, Journalist,
President, Plumber, Carpenter etc.
• Ask the girls to now place the career cards in front of the Male or Female cards as
to who can do these jobs. End result will show that women can do the same jobs
as men.
Positive Thinking
AIM: To share positive thoughts.
TIME: 10 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Nothing.
WHAT TO DO:
(Taken from the World Thinking Day Activity Pack 2011)
• Everybody stands in a circle
• One person calls out positive things to say.
• If it is true for anyone in the circle, then they must jump one step into the
circle.
• Encourage the players to tell each other if they think someone should be
jumping in.
• The game ends when everyone is squashed together in the middle.
Some of the things that could be called: I am good at drawing, I have a brother or
sister, I can ride a bike, I have nice hair, I always share.........
40

Lemons and Limes
AIM: This activity shows that there are differences even in things you assume are the
same. It can provoke a discussion about what makes us different and what similarities
we have with each other.
TIME: 20/30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: A lemon or lime for each player, a permanent marker pen.
WHAT TO DO:
1. Give every player a lemon or lime. Ask the players to write their name on the
fruit. The players have two minutes to get to know their fruit, noticing the shape,
texture and any marks on it.
2. Ask the players to sit together shoulder-to-shoulder in a close circle, with their
hands behind their backs. The players should be facing the centre of the circle so
they can’t see anyone’s hands.
3. Give each player a fruit, distributed at random. Ask them to feel the fruit and if it
is not their fruit, pass it to the left. If they think they have their fruit, they put it
on the floor behind them and continue to pass the rest of the fruit to the left.
4. Let this go on for 5 minutes or until they have all found their own fruits.
5. Ask the players to look at the fruit in their hands to see if they guessed correctly.
What makes us different from each other? How might this cause problems in
communities?
A Song of Empowerment
(To the tune of: He’s got the whole world in his hands)
CHORUS:
I've got the whole world in my hands
I've got the whole world in my hands
I will be the best I can
I've got the whole world in my hand
If I want to achieve I know I can
If I want to win I know I can
If I want to choose I know I can
I've got the whole world in my hands
CHORUS
If I want to accept I know I can
If I want to say no I know I can
If I want to succeed I know I can
I've got the whole world in my hands
41
BROWNIES - MDG 3

GUIDES – MDG 3
Raise Awareness
AIM: To raise awareness of the unequal treatment between boys and girls
TIME: 20/30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Cards with message. Arrange a visit from a successful local woman.
WHAT TO DO:
• Make message cards/posters to raise awareness of unequal treatment of girls and
boys (by computer or by hand) and give them away – e.g. the message might say
‘did you know that “girl children are subjected to oppression, exploitation and
discrimination due to their gender?”
• Talk about women in your neighbourhood who have a big influence on other
people. School principal, TD, doctor...Why do you think people respect her? Write
a list of questions to ask her or invite her to visit the Unit and ask questions.
• Research about International Women’s Day or International Day of the Girl.
Organise an event or activity to celebrate it.
Money, Money, Money
AIM: shows the importance of equipping women with the skills to look after their own
affairs, particularly money.
TIME: 15/20 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Sheets of paper
WHAT TO DO:
• Ask patrols to look after the Unit’s money for a couple of weeks. Make up a rota so
everyone gets a chance to have a go. Make them responsible for collecting money,
noting it down in the accounts book and working out how much is left in the
accounts/how much more is needed.
• Ask the girls to manage a budget for an event.
• Invite a local bank manager/or credit union to come to the meeting to explain
banking concepts like interest, loans, savings and investment.
• Make a budget planner for daily life, including everything money will be spent on.
A Skill for life
AIM: To show the girls that there do not have to be male only jobs, they can do
anything.
TIME: 30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Plumbing equipment.
WHAT TO DO:
Women in many developing countries are responsible for locating and collecting clean
water for their families, often spending many hours a day doing the task. In some parts
of India NGO’s have, as well as installing water pumps for easier access to clean water,
been teaching some women how to maintain and service the hand pumps. These
women then become responsible for servicing their community’s hand pump, as well as
helping other local communities to maintain theirs.
Invite a plumber along to a meeting to teach the girls some basic plumbing, such as
how to change a tap washer, clean a u-bend and so on. This also teaches the girls
about a traditionally male job that they are capable of carrying out themselves.
42

Women on the Edge
AIM: the purpose of this activity is to identify the effects of poverty on women.
Time: 20/30 minutes
What you need: Sheets of paper
WHAT TO DO:
Divide the group into two teams. Explain that you will read a sentence that contains a
fact about women and both teams should finish the sentence by describing what
happens to women because of the fact.
Both teams can then share their completed statements by reading them out or writing
them on posters and displaying them around the room.
Statements:
• Women earn less than men for doing the same work and because of this….
• A lot of women’s time is spent on house work, caring for children, elderly or sick
relatives and because of this…..
• The majority of single parents in Ireland are women and because of this…..
• Many women do not have enough information about family planning and because
of this…..
• In many families, responsibilities are not shared equally between partners and
because of this….
• There are fewer women than men in politics and in government and because of
this……
(From Living on the Edge—NYCI)
A Woman’s Place
AIM: to explore how globalisation of trade has led to the exploitation of women in
developing countries.
TIME: 45 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Copies of Role Cards on next page
This activity looks at a situation where women in particular are exploited. If the group
is large, split it in two or three. Give out the role cards and run the activity in each of
the groups. At the end, bring the groups together and ask if the outcomes were
similar.
WHAT TO DO:
Form three equal groups. Give one of the role cards to each group. Explain that a large
transnational clothing company has recently set up a factory in Globalia in a Free Trade
Zone. Because of previous bad press, they are very image conscious. A recent series of
reports have questioned the treatment of workers in their factories and so they have
asked for a meeting with a representative of the government of Globalia. They have
also requested that a workers’ representative is present. Read out the explanation of
free trade zones. Give the groups 10 minutes to read their cards and to discuss whether
free trade zones exploit workers and what should be done. Bring the groups together
and ask them to introduce themselves. Ask the question, should free trade zones be
more closely controlled by Governments? The groups should justify their positions. The
other groups can ask questions. After 20 minutes, end the game and get the groups to
derole.
• How did it feel to be the worker, the manager or the government during the
game?
• What do you think about free trade zones? How are certain groups exploited in
free trade zones?
• Are there similar work situations at home? How can governments guarantee a
cheap uncomplaining workforce?
43
GUIDES – MDG 3

GUIDES - MDG 3
Marketing and Public Relations Manager, ‘Cool Clothes’
⇒ You are a large multinational company working in textiles and garment
production, with bases in Europe, the USA, Asia and Central America;
⇒ The company has worked very hard on its public image and uses the slogan
‘Everybody Matters’ in its advertising;
⇒ You have recently developed a company code of practice which you enforce
yourself;
⇒ You don’t permit trade unions;
⇒ By locating your factories in poor countries, you provide sorely needed jobs for
local people and income for the host country.
Worker in the Export Processing Zone in Globalia
⇒ You are Rosa Maria Mendoza and work stitching clothes for ‘Cool Clothes’;
⇒ The work is hard, you have to meet a quota each day and it’s very repetitive;
⇒ The light is poor in the factory and when you have to work overtime, your eyes
get very sore;
⇒ Jobs are scarce in the area and you badly need the money to feed your family,
though the pay is bad;
⇒ Over the past five years, your workload has almost doubled but pay has remained
almost the same;
⇒ When you are sick, you have to turn up anyway or you will be fired;
⇒ You rarely speak to the supervisors, who stand around to make sure you are
working as hard as you can;
⇒ You get two breaks a day to go to the toilet and lunch is often eaten at your work
station;
⇒ Some of the other women have been talking about forming a trade union but you
are scared that you would be sacked if the supervisors found out.
Minister for Trade, Government of Globalia
⇒ You are proud of the companies you have attracted to your country;
⇒ There are now almost 100 companies in Free Trade Zones in Globalia providing
much needed jobs;
⇒ As a poor country you must do all you can to attract foreign investment;
⇒ There is a lot of competition from neighbouring countries to attract the
companies;
⇒ You offer special tax incentives and excellent communication lines;
⇒ A job in a Free Trade Zone is highly sought after and there are many people trying
to work there;
⇒ Most of the workers are young women, as they are the quickest and easiest to
manage;
⇒ Once the Free Trade Zone has been set up, you let the company run itself and
don’t interfere;
⇒ The alternative to Free Trade Zones is a return to mass unemployment.
44
(From Big World, Small World—NYCI)

MDG 3 - In your Community
1. Do you think there is equality between men and women in Ireland? Discuss this in
relation to the following topics:
a.Employment
b.Access to Education
c. Media – magazine images, TV and Film
d.Sport
e.Religion
Do a brainstorm on each topic following your discussion. Choose 1 topic and write
a letter to the editor of a local or national newspaper with your views. Remember
that any facts or figures in your article must come from a reliable source.
2. In a group, discuss how you might help a friend who is suffering from domestic
abuse. What are some of the Indicators of domestic violence? What non-violent
approaches are available to people in such situations?
MDG 3 – Internationally
1. Watch the Girl Effect video. Google “The Girl Effect” Have a discussion afterwards
with your group. Share the video on your Facebook page and see if you can get
your friends talking. After a week get your group together again and write a page
on people’s opinions of the video.
2. Organise a “girls’ night in”. As part of the evening invite women you know in your
community to the evening, including someone your mother and grandmother’s age
and someone from another culture. Encourage people to talk in an informal way
about their lives and experiences and difficulties as a woman in the past, now in
Ireland and in other cultures. You can use this as a fundraiser by having food at
the night and inviting the local Guide Unit.
For Young Leaders
Make up and lead a younger Guiding group in a game that teaches them about MDG 3.
Likes, Hopes and Expectations
Read the girls these stories and get them to compare these girls’ lives with their own
by doing the activity below:
Angeline is the eldest child in a large family in Africa. Both her parents are sick/are HIV positive and
they worry about the future of the family. They have very little money and have recently taken
Angeline out of school so they can afford to send her brother instead. Being a girl in her family means
she has to do the house work and mind the younger children.
Maria lives in South America. She lives with her mother in a small house on the edge of a city. She
currently attends 2 nd level school and has recently got a new boyfriend. Her mother is worried as quite a
few of her friends have recently left school after becoming pregnant and she hopes Maria will not end
up dropping out of school too. Maria would like to become a school teacher when she is older, but her
mother doesn’t know if she can afford to send her to university.
Get the girls to draw around their hand and cut it out – depending on the age of the
girls, Ladybirds write on each finger what is the best thing about being a girl - Like,
Brownies write what jobs they would like to do -Hopes
Guides write what their Expectations are e.g. University etc.
On the reverse the girls should write what they think that Angeline or Maria might write
45
SENIOR BRANCH – MDG 3

What does it mean?
46
girls worldwide say
“Together we can
save children’s lives”
Introduction to MDG 4
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality
Girls worldwide say: Together we can save children’s lives
The aim is to work together to reduce by 2/3 the mortality rate among
children under five. Every year an average of 8 million children die,
approximately half of these children are from Africa. Children under 5 die
especially due to malnutrition and lack of access to safe water and
sanitation. Some of these deaths occur from illnesses like measles, malaria
or tetanus. Others are connected to conflict and HIV/AIDS.
About 29,000 children under the age of five – die every day (21 each
minute), mainly from preventable causes. (UNICEF)
According to the World Health Organization, the main causes of death are pneumonia,
diarrhea, malaria, measles, and HIV. Malnutrition is estimated to contribute to more
than one third of all child deaths.
Did you know that….?
• One African child dies every 30 seconds from malaria. Insecticidetreated
nets prevent transmission and increase child survival.
• Under-nutrition is a contributing cause of more than one-third of
the 9.2 million under-five deaths worldwide.
• Over 90 per cent of children with HIV are infected through mother-to-child
transmission, which can be prevented with antiretroviral drugs, as well as safer
delivery and feeding practices .
• About 20 million children under five worldwide are severely underfed, which
leaves them more likely to become ill or die early.
• The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is the international agency that
strives to build a world where the rights of every child are realized. One of the
main goal of UNICEF is to combat child mortality!
What is child
mortality:
Child Mortality
(death) means,
in this case, the
death of infants
and children
under the age
of five.

Country spotlight: Sierra Leone
In many West African countries children under the
age of 5 are at a great risk of death.
For example a child in Sierra Leone is 40 times more
likely to die than a child in Ireland. One fifth of
children under five are moderately or severely
underweight in Sierra Leone, and more than one in
three children under five suffer from moderate or
severe stunted growth.
Because the reasons why children may die are very much related to malnutrition and
illness, Sierra Leone should work hard to increase children’s access to an adequate
amount of food, safe water and sanitation. Moreover, parents and the communities
should be made aware of the consequences of child malnutrition, such as death and
other grave health difficulties.
To help the Government of Sierra Leone, Plan is currently implementing a project in
some of the most food insecure areas of Sierra Leone. This project aims at reducing
acute malnutrition among children under the age of 5 and helping the communities to
be able to provide adequate food to children. The initiative specifically focuses on
providing school feedings, undertaking food interventions, increasing access to health
services by pregnant and lactating women and children under 5, and community-work
projects.
Plan Project
This picture shows a child being immunised in Burkina Faso. Plan is to the
forefront of the battle against a new form of meningitis which is hitting
children and young people in Burkina Faso especially hard and for which there
is no known vaccine.
In the first 3 months of 2012 meningitis claimed the lives of
718 people in Burkina Faso and half of those deaths are being
blamed on the new strain of the disease. The disease is at
epidemic level in five districts and nine others are on high
alert. The mortality rate is particularly high at 14% and 80% of
patients are aged between two and 30.
Plan Burkina Faso is supporting the Ministry of Health by
funding antibiotics, other treatments and with use of
laboratory and other equipment. Plan is also purchasing
vaccines against the other strains of meningitis, which are also
killing many people.
On a more local level, Plan’s five programme units in Burkina
Faso are helping to treat patients. So far 5,118 people
nationally have been treated for the disease
As well as giving direct medical treatment, Plan is also broadcasting health messages on
local radio stations. Plan’s health advisor in Burkina Faso, Dr Ismailou Kaba, said that
these broadcasts contain key messages about the disease and are designed to
encourage people to go to health centres for treatment or vaccination.
47

Girls’ perspective
Worldwide, but especially in developing countries, girls
under the age of 5 are particularly vulnerable to suffer
from child mortality. This is because often girls are
considered less important than boys. Consequently, they
are more likely to suffer from malnutrition and to have
limited access to health services and safe water than boys.
It is very important that Ireland and other states around the
world work to prevent girls’ mortality. Girls should be
considered key in the future of their society and important actors of change to build a
world that combats gender stereotypes and discrimination. Combating girls’ mortality
is the first step towards this.
MDG4 is connected to the Child’s Right to Life
CRC Art 7 and 24
All children shall enjoy their right to life
States shall work as much as they can to ensure the survival and development of children and
to reduce infant and child mortality. Children shall enjoy the best health care possible, safe water
to drink, nutritious food, and a clean and safe environment
Children shall have information on how to stay well
48
“There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds
with children. There is no duty more important than
ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare
is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want
and that they can grow up in peace.” - Kofi Annan

Explaining to Ladybirds: Raising children is a tough job if you are very poor, hungry
and sick. It would be great to help babies and children to be healthy and grow up
strong.
Many poor countries have no clean water if you drink dirty water you will get sick – if
you don’t drink water you will also be sick. (When you don’t have enough to drink you
become dehydrated)
Make a Water Filter
AIM: To make a water filter.
TIME: 30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Water, Oil, Soil/gravel, Plastic Bottles and cotton wool
WHAT TO DO:
• Make some dirty water by adding cooking oil, soil and small pieces of paper.
• Cut a plastic drinks bottle in half. Turn the top half upside down so it’s like a
funnel.
• Experiment with different layers of filter material to see what is most effective
e.g. gravel, sand, cotton wool balls etc.
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DRINK THE FILTERED WATER.
Waters of the World
AIM: To show the difference between the qualities of our water compared to
developing countries.
TIME: 30/40 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Water, containers, food colouring and some dirt.
WHAT TO DO:
Fill a glass of water from the kitchen tap and see how your water compares to waters
from around the world.
Add Food Colouring and dirt to various glasses of water to create a sample of waters
from other countries, such as Mozambique, Bangladesh, Gaza, Northern Pakistan
Not only does the discoloured water really, really taste awful, it will make you sick.
49
LADYBIRDS - MDG 4

LADYBIRDS - MDG 4
Water Run
AIM: To show how precious water is
TIME: 20 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: A cup and 2 buckets per team
WHAT TO DO:
This game is best done outside. To prepare, set up an obstacle race course with three
or four equal lines (depending how many teams there are). Place a half bucket of water
at the start of the line, and an empty one at the other end. Divide the girls into teams.
To play, hold a relay race using a cup of water as the baton. Each team runner must fill
her cup out of the starting bucket then run, skip, hop, etc trying not to spill water
while clearing the obstacles along the way, and empty the cup into the bucket at the
other end. She then runs back and passes the cup on to the next team runner. Measure
the water in the finishing buckets after the race – the team who saved the most water
wins.
Discuss – Does everyone have access to drinking water out of a tap?
What would you do if you had no access to running water?
What can you do to save water?
50

Glitter Germ Game
AIM: To give the Brownies an understanding of how germs can be passed on by touch
and that they are also airborne.
TIME: 60 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: One marker/pencil for each group, pritt stick, glitter, large sheet of
paper per group
WHAT TO DO:
• Cover the markers/pencils with glue and cover in glitter.
• Give each group a marker/pencil and ask each girl to write her name on the sheet
of paper and then pass it on until everyone in the group has written her name.
• They then discuss the following:
• Where on my person is there glitter?
• Where else is there glitter?
• How did it get there?
• How was the glitter passed from one Brownie to another?
• What does the glitter represent? (germs)
• What does the spread of glitter represent? (Contamination by contact)
To show how germs are passed on by airborne method: ( Probably best done outdoors!)
• Divide the Brownies into groups of two and give each girl a small amount of glitter
(have a range of colours to show the spread of germs)
• The girls blow glitter at each other but stress not towards the face.
• They then discuss the following:
• Where on my person is there glitter?
• How did it get there?
• What does the glitter represent?
• How was the glitter passed from girl to girl?
• What does the spread of glitter represent in this instance? (Contamination by
sneezing)
• Discuss the importance of good hygiene, in the home, at school, at your meeting
place.
• Discuss the importance to our health of washing our hands. Make a poster showing
how to wash your hands and display it in the bathroom.
• Discuss what germs are and how they can be passed on.
• Discuss how we can help prevent the spread of germs, e.g. washing our hands,
covering our mouths when coughing or sneezing, using a hanky/tissue to blow our
nose and disposing of it properly.
51
BROWNIES - MDG 4

BROWNIES - MDG 4
Red Bean or Germ?
AIM: To show how germs & diseases are transmitted and how some people are more
susceptible than others.
TIME: 20/30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: 5 small bags with 10 red beans in each.
WHAT TO DO:
• Give a bag each to five girls.
• Each Brownie takes a bean and passes the bag to her neighbour.
• When the bags are empty, count the number of girls with beans.
• Compare the passing round of the beans with the passing around of germs &
diseases:
• 1bean = 1 germ
• The more beans you have, the more germs you have, the more at risk you are of
getting ill, but you could get ill with one germ.
Discuss with the Brownies how some people are more susceptible to germs than others:
babies, pregnant women, old people, sick people and undernourished people.
52
Ideas from www.hygiene-educ.com
Teach your girls the following songs after discussing germs and diseases with them.
Sneezing Song
I think --I am going to sneeze ..(ha chew!)
I think --I am going to sneeze ..(ha chew)
If you sneeze, pass the tissue please....
Ha Chew, Ha Chew, Ha Chew
Pass around a box of tissues. Each child takes one, teach the song, then sneeze and
then we get up and throw the tissue away. The practice is a good example to show
them where the dirty tissues belong and that you don't want to have to pick up
someone else's dirty tissue.
Germ Poem
When you cough or when you sneeze,
will you think of others please.
Use a tissue or your hand,
so on friends your germs won't land.

Immunisation Game
Aim: To show the girls that immunisation can prevent illness and in some cases death.
Time: 30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: A card for each group with a large immunisation needle drawn on it
with six markings on the barrel of the needle numbered 1 – 6, one dice for each group,
markers.
WHAT TO DO:
• Discuss how children are given vaccinations at various stages in their lives to
promote health e.g. MMR (Measles, Mumps & Rubella).
• Each group has to get all their jabs before they can travel to faraway places.
• Beside each number write 1- Polio, 2 – Measles, 3 – Mumps, 4 – Whooping Cough, 5
– Meningitis, 6 – Rubella
• Each team must throw the dice and colour in the corresponding numbered mark on
the needle.
• They have to try to get all their jabs as quickly as possible to avoid getting sick.
Afterwards discuss the game some more with your Brownies:
• Explain how, when germs enter our bodies, our immune system recognises them as
foreign bodies (antigens). Our immune system then produces the antibodies to
fight them. In Third World Countries the children are not so lucky and do not have
access to immunisation.
• If your immune system is low because of lack of food, clean water or proper
shelter your body is not able to fight the germs.
• In these poorer countries a lot of children and adults do not have some of the
basic necessities of life and get very ill and/or die.
Healthy Eating
(From SMALL WORLD – an international resource for Rainbow & Brownie Guiders)
Aim: To show the girls that not everyone has food to eat and they should feel lucky.
Time: 30/40 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: A copy of the Food Pyramid on page 53 of “The Brownie Guide.”
WHAT TO DO:
Discuss the importance of a healthy diet. Explain to your Brownies how children in
Third World Countries aren’t as lucky as they are and often do not have enough food to
eat.
53
BROWNIES - MDG 4

GUIDES - MDG 4
Miracle Food
Aim: To show the girls that with a couple of ingredients you can make a food that will
help a starving child.
Time: 40/50 minutes
What you need: See food list below.
WHAT TO DO:
This mixture has been used to save many children from starvation:
54
• 50g of natural peanut butter
• 50g non fat dry milk powder
• 50g honey
• 50g oats
• Optional sunflower seeds, currants, raisins and other dried fruit
Mix the peanut butter, milk powder and honey in a bowl. Add optional extra
ingredients: Spread oats on a plate, roll the mixture into little bars (use clean hands or
spoons) about the size of an adult’s little finger. Then, coat each bar with the oats by
rolling the bars on the plate. Place the ready bars on a clean plate and share around
afterwards for everyone to taste.
Child Mortality Prevention
Aim: This activity visually shows the girls what a child needs to survive in the
developing world.
Time: 30 minutes
What you need: 3 sets of cards, see list below. Flip Chart.
WHAT TO DO:
Prepare 3 sets of cards with 7/8 most essential things to ensure early child survival. For
example:
vaccination
clean water
doctors and hospital nearby
breast feeding from healthy women
warmth
food
mosquito net
good sewage system
available medicine
functioning transport to go to the hospital
sufficient money to buy medicine and pay for hospital
• Give one card to each girl and ask them to stick the card on her forehead.
• Without talking the girls will move around and need to communicate by miming
what other girls are and guess what they are.
• The girls shall try to group themselves in 3 groups that contain all the essential
things to ensure early child survival.

Local Development Plans
AIM: To show how vulnerable children in Sierra Leone are.
TIME: 40 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Flip Charts or large sheets
A child in Sierra Leone is 40 times more likely to die than a child in Ireland. One fifth of children under five are
moderately or severely underweight in Sierra Leone, and more than one in three children under five suffer from
moderate or severe stunted growth. The causes of childhood mortality are very much connected to malnutrition and
illness. In many villages of Sierra Leone there is no health centre and when there is one they may not have sufficient
medicines for all the population. There may only be one doctor who has to look after all the inhabitants of the village.
The majority of the houses have no running water and most of the time the sewage system is not working
appropriately and sewage is running on the street. This attracts many insects which, in turn, increases the chances
of getting malaria and other diseases that at a young age may be lethal.
WHAT TO DO:
• Let the girls work within their own Patrols and give them a copy of the above
information on Sierra Leone.
• Give them a flip chart and ask them to list a number of actions that the village
council should put into place to make sure that children in Sierra Leonean
villages are safe and less likely to die under 5 years of age.
• Bring the patrols back into 1 group and ask one girl from each Patrol to report
back to the whole group.
• Have a final open discussion with the group.
Action Plan – what happens when someone is having a baby?
AIM: To see how much the girls know about having a baby and to discuss the topic
with their group.
TIME: 40 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Paper, Pens
WHAT TO DO:
Let the girls work in their Patrols. Ask them to form a line with a distance of 10
meters from one girl to the other. Give a piece of paper to the first girl.
- The first girl should think about the 1 st thing that needs to be done when someone is
having a baby. She will write this on the paper. When she finishes she runs to the
second girl in her Patrol.
- The second girl will have to read the first action written and think/write about what
needs to be done. She will then run to the third girl
- The relay continues until the girls have no other actions to write down on the paper
- At the end of the relay ask each Patrol to have a discussion on what they have come
up with as an action plan
- Ask each Patrol to come back in a group and present their action plan
Group work: Action plan when someone is having a baby...where is the hospital, how
will you get there, what will you need in hospital, what will you need when the baby
is born..what does the baby need to stay healthy at home?
List a number of things that mothers and fathers should do to look after babies both
in Ireland and in Sierra Leone…. Are these things different??? (e.g. vaccination, clean
water, doctors and hospital nearby, breast feeding from healthy women, warmth, 55
food)
GUIDES – MDG 4

GUIDES - MDG 4
Balloon Busters
AIM: To highlight issues affecting young people’s health in Ireland and the Developing
World.
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: 2 colours of balloons, statements (cut in two)
WHAT TO DO:
• Copy the statements below and cut in two as indicated. Either beforehand or
with the group, insert one half of each statement into a balloon so that the start
of each sentence is in one coloured balloon and the end of a sentence is in the
second colour and there is a balloon for each participant.
• Mark a start and finish line at the ends of the room. Break into two teams and
ask for a captain from each team. The teams line up facing one another between
the start and finish line. When the Leader says go, the captains pass the
balloons, one at a time, to the first person in the line. Without using their
hands, the teams have to pass the balloons down the line and deposit them at
the far end. If a balloon is dropped, the Leader has to bring it back to the start.
• The first team to get all their balloons over the finish line are the winners. Each
participant takes one balloon and bursts it, taking the piece of paper from
inside. The participants must find the person from the other team that holds the
second part of their statement. Ask the pairs to read out their statements.
• As a large group, rank the statements from very important health issue to not so
important. Ask if any of the issues are only relevant to developing countries or
to Ireland. What health issues are in common?
56
Healthy life expectancy is 39 in Africa compared to 66 in the Developed World
The amount of aid spent by rich countries
on health each year is the same as
Control of food production by a few
global corporations
To cover the cost of going to the doctor
in Ethiopia
For every extra year that a girl spends in
school in developing countries, ?
the amount spent on ice cream in Europe
squeezes out small producers and reduces
access to healthy, nutritious food
many poor families have to sell their
belongings, borrow money or take their children
out of school
the risk of her contracting HIV decreases by up
to 10%
Up to one-third of global disease is caused by environmental factors, such as
polluted water and air
Nearly one in six children in sub-Saharan
Africa die before their fifth birthday
compared with one in 150 in richer countries.
90 % of people living with HIV/AIDS live in the Developing World
Most people with a disability in the
Developing World
do not have access to adequate healthcare

MDG 4—In your Community
1. If you are living in the Dublin area, you could volunteer with the Crumlin Hospital
Guide Unit. You should attend at least one meeting. Email info@irishgirlguides.ie
if you are interested in getting involved. Attend the meetings in pairs. Afterwards
as a group write an article for Trefoil News about your experience.
MDG 4—Internationally
1. Read about childhood immunisation in Ireland at the following website:
http://www.immunisation.ie/en/ChildhoodImmunisation/
At this website read about the work of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and
Immunization at http://www.gavialliance.org/media_centre/facts/index.php
Together as a group draw a chart or brainstorm of how vaccinations and reducing
child mortality is linked with the other MDGs
2. As a group discuss the possible causes of death in children in developing
countries. Make a list of the causes and identify if they link with other MDGs. As a
group choose one of the causes and identify 3 possible solutions for that problem.
Visit the Irish Aid Website and read about their work on MDG 4. Do you think
enough is being done by Ireland in relation to MDG 4? Following this write a letter
to: Minister of State for Trade and Development, Joe Costello T.D. at:
For Young Leaders
Dáil Eireann,
Kildare Street,
Dublin 2
Make up and lead a younger Guiding group in a game that teaches them about MDG 4.
For example Miss Polly had a Dolly
Sing the song and make up actions, sing it a few times until everyone knows the words.
Ask who has been to the doctor recently, do they like going to the doctor. Ask them
what reasons would stop people from going to the doctor.
• Examples to prompt – cost, distance, not enough doctors, can’t leave other
children, they don’t trust the doctor to make them better and maybe Dad would
lose his job if he took time off to bring child to the doctor.
Now ask the girls what would happen if they could not go to the doctor.
• Examples to prompt, they could not go to school, they could not go to Ladybirds/
Brownies or if they got really sick they might end up in hospital ( don’t tell the
Ladybirds they might die)
57
SENIOR BRANCH – MDG 4

58
girls worldwide say
“every mother’s life and
health is precious”
Introduction to MDG 5
Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health
Girls worldwide say: every mother’s life and health is precious
What does it mean?
The aim of this goal is to work together to reduce the
maternal mortality rate and improve access to
reproductive health systems. Healthy children need
healthy mothers.
Maternal health includes family planning, preconception,
prenatal and postnatal care. The aim is to reduce the
maternal mortality (death) ratio by three quarters.
1 in 16 women die in childbirth every year. Many of these
deaths are preventable. If mothers had access to health
care and basic medicine, then most of them would stay
healthy and be able to look after their families.
World Child Mortality Rates:
(deaths per 1,000 births)
1.Angola 178.1
2. Afghanistan 151.5
3.Niger 114.5
4.Mali 113.6
5.Somalia 107.4
6.Mozambique 103.8
7.Central African Republic 101.6
8.Guinea-Bissau 98.0
9.Chad 97.0
10.Nigeria 92.9
Country spotlight: Guinea Bissau
Guinnea Bissau is in West Africa. 1.6
million people live there. The life
expectancy is 48. There is an infant
mortality rate of 98 / 1000. In
Ireland the infant mortality rate is
3/1000. Some people live many many
miles from their nearest health centre
so Plan has introduced mobile health
clinics which travel to rural areas to
treat women and children who wouldn’t
be able to get to health centres
otherwise.
Volunteers are also trained to be midwives so that they can assist at birth. Although
there are many people who help mothers at the birth of their children, they are not
professional health care workers so if there is a problem they sometimes do not know
what to do. By training these women about maternal health, many more children and
their mothers are being saved.

Plan Project
Almost 10% of women in Guinea die in childbirth – many of them could be
saved with better obstetric care during pregnancy and shortly after delivery.
In January, Plan Guinea with financial support of Plan Japan launched a
project to make sure that women get the necessary pre- and postnatal care
they and their babies need.
The project will realize the following activities:
• Training of health workers in emergency obstetric care
• Training of village midwives to identify signs of complications
and risks during pregnancy and to refer women to the health
centres
• Establishment and equipment of health centres
• The organization of awareness- raising campaigns in affected
rural communities to inform families about the existence of the
new birth health centres, and to inform about the need to refer
pregnant women to these centres for better monitoring of
pregnancy and childbirth
• The renovation of delivery rooms in health facilities in the five
rural target communes
• Free provision of drugs for women to treat complications
after childbirth complications; and for the treatment of
newborns in need of special medical attention
• Provision of a motorcycle ambulance for each centre (a bike
with 3 wheels designed for transporting the sick) to transfer
complicated cases to the Centre for Improved Health in
Koule
Girls’ perspective
This goal is especially important for women and girls as they are the
ones who have babies! Pregnancy is the leading cause of death for
girls between 15 – 19 in developing countries. By training girls to
become midwives they are not only saving lives but they are also
learning a new job.
“There is simply no good reason why in the 21st century, thousands of
women and children in developing countries should be dying during
childbirth and the early years of life.” - Honourable Aileen Carroll,
Minister of International Co-operation
59

Did you know?
• More than half a million women die in pregnancy and child birth
every year – that’s one death every minute. Of these deaths 99
per cent are in developing countries.
• Currently, 200 million women have an unmet need for safe and effective contraceptive
devices.
• 8 million babies die each year before or during delivery or in the first week of
life. Also, children that are left motherless are 10 times more likely to die within
two years of their mother’s death.
• UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development
agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of
health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data
for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy
is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV, and every
girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.
MDG5 is connected to the Child ‘s Right to Health
CRC Art 24 and 25, CEDAW art 12
States shall work as much as they can to ensure appropriate pre-natal and post-natal health
care to mothers. Children and their communities, in particularly mothers, shall receive enough
information to help them understand the importance of child nutrition, the advantages to
breastfeeding, hygiene. States shall work as much as they can to establish institutions to
protect and treat pregnant women who are at risk during their pregnancy. States shall offer
guidance to parents through family planning and during the course of pregnancy
60

NOTE TO LEADERS: Leaders should be aware of the personal circumstances for each of
their Ladybirds. If one or more girls has lost her mother or her mother is very ill these
activities may not be suitable for your Unit.
Explaining to Ladybirds: When a mother has a new baby, it is a big job for her. We
have good hospitals in Ireland where mothers and babies are cared for. New babies and
mothers in poor countries need extra help and care.
I Love You, Mum
AIM: To remind the girls how nice their mothers are.
TIME: 40 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Copies of vouchers on Worksheet 1. Card and coloured pencils.
WHAT TO DO:
• Have a chat about what nice things the girls have done for their mums recently.
Why is it important to be nice to the people who look after you?
• Think of three nice things you can do for your mother.
• Have the Ladybirds create vouchers for their mother, using the template on
worksheet Number 1.
• Or they could make a thank you card, poem, letter or special treat.
61
LADYBIRDS - MDG 5

LADYBIRDS - MDG 5
Let’s Play Mother
AIM: To show the girls what’s involved in caring for a baby.
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Baby doll, with clothes and nappies.
WHAT TO DO:
Bring in baby dolls for a meeting – feed the dolls, change them and dress them, put
them to sleep etc.
Birth Stories
AIM: To chat about themselves as babies and to remind them of happy and funny
stories.
TIME: 40 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Baby photo of each girl.
WHAT TO DO:
Get the girls to write their own stories. They should ask their parents to help them,
maybe start with a photo and then ask questions like
• Where was I born?
• Did I have hair?
• How much did I weigh?
• Was I born early? Late? Or right on time?
62

Tea with Mum/Granny
AIM: Compare Granny and Mammy's memories and discuss what they might change
when it comes to their turn.
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Give the girls their task the week before the discussion night.
WHAT TO DO:
Talk to your mother/a mother and your grandmother/a grandmother about what it is
like to be a mother. Compare the two and see if there are any differences or
similarities.
Older Brownies: From the talks try to think of things that would make it easier to be a
mother.
Mother May I?
AIM: To have fun
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Nothing
WHAT TO DO:
• The girls line up at one end of the Hall.
• ‘Mother’ stands in front of the girls at the other end.
• ‘Mother’ says: “Sarah you take 6 steps forward/backward” ( it can be baby/
normal or giant steps) The girl says: “Mother may I?” ‘Mother’ answers Yes or
No.
• If the girl forgets to say: “Mother may I?” she goes back to the beginning.
• The girl who gets to touch “Mother” first has won.
• The steps the girls take can be altered to be steps with health issues e.g. broken
leg, back pain, very tired, carrying a big weight or pushing something.
Mother’s Day Relay
AIM: To have more fun
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: One set of clothes that mums wear, per team e.g. hat, scarf, gloves,
cardigan, skirt, boots (about five items is best)
WHAT TO DO:
Divide the group into teams of four or five.
Place a box of clothes per team at the end of the hall (all boxes should have the same
number of items)
The first girl in the team runs up to the box and puts all the clothes on and runs back to
the team and takes the clothes off.
The next girl puts on the clothes and runs back to the box, takes off the clothes, puts
them into the box and runs back to her team.
Next girl runs up to the box and starts putting on the clothes.
Game continues until the last person has taken off the clothes, puts them in the box
and runs back to her team.
63
BROWNIES - MDG 5

BROWNIES - MDG 5
The Role of a Mother
AIM: To remind the girls how vital their Mums are to the family
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Pre-cut circles with “Mother” on it.
WHAT TO DO:
Give the Brownies in pairs or Sixes a circular card with the word MOTHER in the centre
and ask them to write down all the things a mother is or does.
Discuss the results, then ask them to think about what might happen if their mother
gets ill, goes away etc and how they would feel.
This could then lead on to how to be healthy MDG 4 because if she becomes ill, it
causes problems.
CARER COOK
COMFORTER
BABYSITTER
FEMALE PARENT
Mother and Daughter Evening
MOTHER
PROVIDER
AIM: To bond with mothers, aunts and grannies.
TIME: 60 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Crafts for both Mothers and Daughters
HELPER
NURSE
WHAT TO DO:
• Host a mother and daughter evening, around Mother’s Day is a good time.
• For the girls whose mothers may not be able to attend, make it available for
aunties or grannies/nanas to come in their place.
• Each girl sits with her mum/aunt/nana and they both do a craft.
• The adults all do the same craft and the girls all do the same craft (but a different
one from the adults). At the end of the evening they exchange gifts.
• To make it special serve tea, coffee, biscuits and cakes as part of the occasion.
64

What is a Mother?
- Author unknown
A mother can be almost any size or any age, but she
won’t admit to anything over thirty. A mother has
soft hands and smells good. A mother likes new
dresses, music, a clean house, her children’s kisses,
an automatic washer and Daddy.
A mother doesn’t like having her children sick, muddy
feet, temper tantrums, loud noise or bad report
cards. A mother can read a thermometer (much to
the amazement of Daddy) and like magic, can kiss a
hurt away.
A mother can bake good cakes and pies but likes to
see her children eat vegetables. A mother can stuff a
fat baby into a snowsuit in seconds and can kiss sad
little faces and make them smile.
A mother is underpaid, has long hours and gets very
little rest. She worries too much about her children
but she says she doesn’t mind at all. And no matter
how old her children are, she still likes to think of
them as her little babies.
She is the guardian angel of the family, the queen, the
tender hand of love. A mother is the best friend
anyone ever had. A mother is love.
And Grandmas Too
– Author Unknown
“While we honour all our mothers
with words of love and praise.
While we tell about their goodness
and their kind and loving ways.
We should also think of Grandma,
she’s a mother too, you see....
For she mothered my dear mother
as my mother mothers me.”
65
BROWNIES - MDG 5

GUIDES – MDG 5
Why is MDG 5 so Important?
AIM: To remind the girls how vital maternal health is.
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Flip Charts/Large sheets of Paper and Pens.
WHAT TO DO:
Take a moment to think about how the maternal health MDG links to other MDG topics.
Draw a chart to show why it’s important to improve maternal health and how this
improvement will help to achieve two or more of the other MDGs.
Learn about Adolescent Pregnancy
AIM: To discuss adolescent pregnancies and compare their lives with girls similar in age
from developing countries
TIME: 60 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Large sheets for Posters, Magazines, scissors, glue and pens.
WHAT TO DO:
Make two posters using drawings or magazine pictures. One poster should illustrate the
reasons that lead to adolescent pregnancy; the other poster should show the behaviour
of women, as well as men and communities in general, that reduces the risk of
adolescent pregnancy. Discuss whether choices will make people happy and what might
happen after bad choices. Then discuss what it might be like to have no choice at all.
Perform a role play about two teenage friends where one girl is pregnant and the other
one is not . How do they each plan their future after finishing school?
Building your Town Health Reproductive Centre
AIM: To show the girls how difficult it is to spread a limited amount of money over all
the areas that need money.
TIME: 45 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Money Cards, Insulating Tape, Paper and pens.
WHAT TO DO:
- Let the girls work in their patrols.
- Ask them to find a base and delineate the perimeter with some tape and wait inside
the base until the Leader tells them what to do.
- Scatter money cards around the area (you can draw the sign of Euro € on the card)
- When you say ‘start’ the girls will have to go and try to collect as many money cards
as they can and bring these back to the base.
- When a girl runs after another and touches her, the touched one will have to give her
all the money cards that she collected. This means that while the girls should focus on
collecting the money cards, they should also be careful not to be touched.
- When all the money cards are collected, ask the girls to go back to their Patrol and
count how much money they have collected. This is their allocated budget and build
the ‘Town Health Reproductive Centre’. They need to work together to strategize on
what is needed to build and run a health reproductive centre and how much to allocate
to the various things that are needed.
- Ask the Patrol Leaders to write all the decisions on a flip chart.
- When the patrols have finished ask them to report to the rest of the Unit on their
development plan.
It will be interesting to have an open discussion on the decisions made by each Patrol.
Also, it will be interesting to discuss the financial implications of establishing a health
clinic (i.e. with little money is not possible to pay the salary of the doctor or to buy
medicine or to ensure the infrastructure is functioning…)
66

Family Roles and Responsibilities
AIM: To show the girls how difficult it is for a pregnant mother in the developing
world.
TIME: 45 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Photocopy the below critical situations and cut into seperate
cards.
WHAT TO DO:
Divide the Unit in Patrols and assign to each person in the Patrol one of the following
roles:
> Mother
> Father
> 3 year old child
> Auntie
> 7 year old child
Assign to each Patrol one of the following critical situations and ask them to discuss
how best each person in the group could help the family to overcome the critical
situation successfully. In other words, what are the responsibilities of each person
within the family.
Critical situations
• The mother is 6 months pregnant and very sick. She needs daily assistance. She
needs to go to hospital to get a check up and to ensure that her sickness will not
affect the pregnancy. The father is away for work and comes back only at weekends.
The auntie is at home but works every second day.
• The mother is 8 months pregnant. She is very tired all the time and is not able to
take care of the other children. She is also unable to take care of the vegetables
in the garden. The 7 year old is in school outside the town and comes back home
every day at 5pm. He needs someone to pick him up at the bus station.
• The mother is just 2 months pregnant and gets malaria. Some medical treatment
is needed immediately to make sure that the illness will not affect the pregnancy.
However, the financial situation of the family is quite critical as the father does
not have a job. Also, it is September and the school fee is due for the 7 year old
child. The Auntie does not live with the family but with her husband. They both
work and do not have children to maintain.
• The mother is 5 months pregnant and works everyday as a teacher. She cannot
leave her job these days because she has exams to organize. She has good health
but the 3 year old child just got very bad flu. The father works occasionally. The 7
year old is in school but will be back during the weekend.
• The mother is 7 months pregnant and she is a refugee and just arrived in a refugee
camp in Kenya from Somalia. She needs some medical attention to make sure that
her pregnancy is going well. The 7 year old needs clothing and school material to
be able to attend school in the camp. Only the auntie speaks the local language.
The 3 year old is healthy, but he needs to eat good healthy food from now on if
the family want to avoid him getting malnourished.
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GUIDES – MDG 5

GUIDES – MDG 5
A Woman’s World
AIM: To investigate health issues for girls and women around the world
TIME: 45 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED:
WHAT TO DO: flipchart paper, markers, set of role cards
Tape some flipchart sheets together and stick them on the wall. Hand out markers
and ask the group to write or draw examples or ideas on the theme ‘health issues for
young people around the world’. Allow 5 minutes for this. Now ask whether any of the
issues identified affect girls and women particularly. Highlight these issues.
Form groups of four or five people. Read out the following: ‘You work for Global News
Network (GNN), a large media corporation with both radio and TV stations. You have
been asked to prepare a three minute report to be broadcast as part of a primetime
news programme highlighting health issues for girls and women. It is up to you who
you talk to and how you want to put the report together.’ Give each group one of the
following role cards. Allow 20 minutes to read the cards and develop the report.
Each group then does a presentation to the large group. Participants should play the
different roles, as well as the reporter.
In the large group, discuss the issues raised by the reports. Ask if the issues are
specific to particular countries or regions of the world. Which of the issues presents
the biggest risk to the health of girls and women? Why? What needs to happen to
reduce the health risk for girls and women?
Education and Health
Anna is ten and comes from Honduras in Central America. Before she can even think about
going to school she has to collect water from the well, firewood for cooking and then help
her mother and older sister prepare breakfast for her father and brother. After school she has
to clean the house and help with dinner. She is always tired at school and has little time to
study. Anna’s mother was sick last year and the hospital bills meant that they couldn’t afford
to send all three children to school. Anna’s parents felt that it was most important that their
son got an education, so her older sister now stays at home. The way work is divided in the
household is one of many obstacles to girls getting an education. Anna knows that if girls get
an education, they themselves, their families and communities will be healthier.
Maternal Health
Gladys is nineteen and lives in southern Ghana. She is pregnant with her first child. The local
clinic closed down due to a lack of trained staff so she will rely on her family when she is due
to give birth. A neighbour of hers died last year while giving birth and Gladys is scared. She
doesn’t think it’s fair that a woman is 100 times more likely to die during childbirth in Ghana
compared to women in a country like Ireland. Pregnancy and childbirth are still the leading
causes of death and disease in women of childbearing age in developing countries.
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(From Drinking from the Well—NYCI)

Bullying
Sinéad is fifteen and moved with her family to Drogheda last year. She’s studying for her Junior
Certificate. At her old school she got on well and had friends. However, girls at her new
school have started a whispering campaign about her, saying things like she’s fat and a loser.
Nobody wants to sit beside her and she feels alone. Her grades have started to suffer. She has
started looking at herself in the mirror and wondering if she really is fat. Sometimes she
thinks she’d do anything to get in their good books, maybe try to deflect their attention onto
another girl.
Health and HIV/AIDS
Goretti is 18. She comes from Burundi. She left school because she lost her father and had no
money. She is HIV Positive and has a two year old child. She says ‘any girls and young women
are forced to sell themselves to survive. They don’t have a choice. They go into bars and
clubs and pick up men – truck drivers, soldiers – anyone with money. The girls who do this are
14 years and over, mainly poor girls and girls displaced by war. It is consensual. We are not
taken by force. To prevent the spread of HIV, girls should have a source of income. This way
we’d have money to live on and care for our children.’ She says she would prefer to trade
vegetables, rice, beans, tomatoes and oil instead of going to the bars and clubs. But to be
able to trade, she needs a place to live and some money. Overall Goretti thinks that HIV/AIDS
is the main problem facing Burundi and that war is the cause.
Female Genital Cutting
Aicha is 14 years old. She lives in Mali in West Africa. Three years ago, she underwent female
genital cutting (FGC) as part of a traditional ‘initiation’ ceremony in her village. The pain
was unbearable and she tried to block out the memory of it. Now however her parents want
to perform FGC on her younger sister Aminata and the terrible memories are coming back.
Aicha thinks it’s an abuse of children’s and women’s rights to be protected from harm. After
the ceremony she was sick for weeks and might have died. Her younger sister is looking forward
to the ceremony because her older sister and all the other girls get it done and she
couldn’t bear to be different. Also, her parents and other villagers strongly support it. Her
father says that it is an important cultural tradition, done to satisfy their ancestors, while her
mother says it brings respect to the girls. Aicha knows that there are organisations working in
Mali who are trying to encourage communities to abandon the practice but will it come in
time to help her younger sister?
(From Drinking from the Well—NYCI)
69
GUIDES - MDG 5

SENIOR BRANCH – MDG 5
Before the girls begin it might be useful to spend 5 minutes reading the following
information on MDG 5 and its importance:
70
http://www.unifem.org/progress/2008/mdgsGender5.html
To put things in perspective:
“Pregnancy and child-birth related deaths are the number one killers
of 15-19 year-old girls in low income countries”
MDG 5 — In your Community
1. Like the “keep your promise” page on Facebook. Look at 3 of the links on the
wall. They can be articles or videos. Discuss the links and write a short summary
of the information in the link and your opinions of the subject discussed
2. Find out where your local Women’s Health Clinic is. Is there a dedicated women’s
health clinic in your community? What services are provided by the clinic? If you or
a friend became pregnant is there somewhere in your community to turn to for
impartial advice, help and information? Is there somewhere to find information
about contraception? Find out details and discuss with the group. (It is better if
there is an adult facilitator (who isn’t a parent of one of the girls) for this
activity. Try to dispel any myths around contraception and reproductive health
that the girls may have picked up in previous conversations with their peers)
MDG 5 — Internationally
1. Go to the following website: http://www.mdg5watch.org/
Read about 3 of the organisations under “spotlight” on the home page. Discuss the
different challenges and problems that they are working to overcome in their
country.
2. Go to the following link and download the fact sheet
http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/Uploads/Factsheet_5.pdf
Read it together as a group and then split into 2 groups. Hold a debate on whether
Ireland is doing enough work for MDG 5, internationally and in Ireland itself. One
side should agree and the other should disagree.
For Young Leaders
Make up and lead a younger Guiding group in a game that teaches them about MDG 5.
For example — Get the girls to draw a picture of themselves and their Mums, and
beside it they should write all the things that they like to do with their Mums
They could present the picture to their Mums for Mother’s Day.

Introduction to MDG 6
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
Girls worldwide say: we can stop the spread of AIDS, malaria and other diseases
What does it mean?
girls worldwide say
“we can stop the spread of AIDS,
malaria and other diseases”
The aim is to stop the spread of infectious diseases and begin to reverse the spread of
HIV/AIDS and the number of cases of malaria and other major diseases by 2015.
In 2009 about 33,000 million people worldwide were living with HIV/AIDS. Of these,
15.9 million are women and 2.5 million are children. The majority of the people living
with HIV/AIDS are in Africa Sub-Sahara (22.5 million) followed by South and South East
Asia (4.1 million)
The number of people living with HIV rose from around 8 million in 1990 to 33 million
by the end of 2009. The overall growth of the epidemic has stabilized in recent years.
In 2008, there were 247 million cases of malaria and nearly one million deaths – mostly
among children living in Africa. However, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and
some parts of Europe are also affected by Malaria. In Africa a child dies every 45
seconds of Malaria, the disease accounts for 20% of all childhood deaths.
Each year, malaria causes at least one million deaths, and there are an additional 300
to 500 million clinical cases, the majority of which occur in the world's poorest
countries. Malaria control efforts are paying off, but additional effort is needed.
For example, in sub-Saharan Africa only five per cent of children under five sleep under
insecticide-treated bed nets. While international funding for malaria control has risen
tenfold over the past decade, more funding is still needed to tackle the disease
effectively.
Diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria impact developing countries in many ways. They
affect the health of the communities and lead to the death of many people. They are
also considered to be a major factor in the slow economic development of poorer
countries. They also perpetrate marginalization and stigmatization of those affected or
at risk to be affected. This is very true in the case of girls and women who are
systematically discriminated against because they are thought to be carrying the HIV
virus.
“Of all of the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking
and the most inhumane.” - Martin Luther King Jr
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What is HIV/AIDS?
HIV - the Human Immunodeficiency Virus - is a virus that
attacks the immune system, resulting in a chronic,
progressive illness that leaves people vulnerable to
opportunistic infections and cancers. When the body can no
longer fight infection, the disease is known as AIDS, which
stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. On
average, it takes more than 10 years to progress from
initial HIV infection to AIDS.
Country spotlight: Nepal
Plan is working hard in various parts of the world to
combat the spread of Malaria and HIV and to help girls
that have been affected. For example, in Nepal, Plan
support HIV and AIDS prevention and care for children
with disabilities. Hundreds of patients have benefited
from their sexually-transmitted infection camps where
they receive counselling, testing, medical support and
services for HIV and AIDS and resulting illnesses.
Plan Project
Plan is also working hard to push back Malaria, for example in Senegal. Here
Plan works with communities to reduce the incidence of malaria by spraying
indoor walls and curtains with insecticides which are harmless to human
beings but which kill or repel the mosquitoes that spread malaria.
Up to 85% of houses in some of the most affected areas have been sprayed, and as a
result, a big drop in the incidence of the disease has been noticed. Mr. Ndiaye, head
nurse from Taiba Niassene, said: “For more than 3 months, I have only received 1 case
of malaria which is unbelievable compared to a few years ago when we were always
snowed under by the big number of patients just lying on the floor waiting for
treatment.”
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Student club leaders in Laos teaching handwashing to their peers
What is Malaria?
Malaria is caused by
Plasmodium parasites. The
parasites are spread to
people through the bites of
infected Anopheles
mosquitoes, called "malaria
vectors", which bite mainly
between dusk and dawn.
Did you know?
The World Health
Organization (WHO) is
the international agency
of the United Nations
that is responsible for
providing leadership on
global health matters,
shaping the health
research agenda, setting
norms and standards,
and monitoring and
assessing health trends.

Girls’ Perspective
Girls are particularly vulnerable to suffer from malaria. This is
because young children have not yet developed immunity. Also, the
poor living conditions girls are subjected to, including the lack of
access to safe water, the scarce food consumption in quality and
quantity, the discrimination girls suffer, and the lack of access to
health services are contributing factors that increase girls’
vulnerability to severe diseases like malaria.
As regard to HIV infection, it has been proved that the rates among teenage girls are
often much higher than in teenage boys. Girls are biologically and socially more prone
to contract the infection than boys. The female reproductive tract is more susceptible
to infection with HIV and other STDs, particularly in younger girls. As well as this girls
and young women have less control over their lives and bodies than their male
counterparts. For example, in many countries where Plan works, young girls found
themselves in the sex industry at very tender age.
Another factor that contributes to the spread of HIV and malaria among girls is the lack
of education. Awareness of the diseases and how to prevent and combat them is an
essential component in the fight to reduce the number of victims. It has been proved
that diseases spread twice as quickly among uneducated girls as among girls that have
even some schooling.
Did you know that….?
• In the WAGGGS’ Adolescent Health Global Survey, nearly a quarter
of girls surveyed knew somebody living with AIDS.
• Girl Guides and Girl Scouts were asked which of the following
issues would be important for the World Association of Girl Guides
and Girl Scouts to talk to world leaders. They said: HIV / AIDS – 37 per cent,
Adolescent pregnancy – 24 per cent, Sexually transmitted conditions – 22 per cent,
Eating disorders – 17 per cent
• WAGGGS has published the AIDS training toolkit which girls can use to train their
peers on how to prevent HIV infection and fight stigma and fear. You can earn the
WAGGGS AIDS badge. Download the curriculum from the WAGGGS website.
• Swaziland has the highest known prevalence of HIV /AIDS at 26%. It is hard to give
a true figure for the amount of people to have HIV / AIDS because many people
are afraid to admit they have the disease. Some people say that they have other
diseases instead.
MDG6 is connected to the Child’s Right to Health and Protection
CRC Art 24 and 25
States shall work as much as they can to provide children with services to recover
from diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria. Good hospitals, where to find drinking
water and nutritious food, shall be available for children. Children shall receive
education on the risks of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other illnesses and especially on how
to prevent these diseases. Children shall receive adequate protection and treatment
in consideration of their illness.
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LADYBIRDS - MDG 6
Explaining to Ladybirds: Diseases like malaria make you very sick. You catch malaria
from a small fly called a Mosquito, but you can prevent the disease by using mosquito
nets around your bed when you sleep.
If you live in a poor country where there is a shortage of medicines and doctors, it can
be very difficult for you to get better. The best thing to do is to prevent you from
catching the disease. Diseases can be prevented if you get your vaccinations at the
doctors. Clean water is very important to keep you healthy.
Highlight Handwashing
AIM: Remind the girls that they must wash their hands and do it properly with soap.
TIME: 40 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Paper and coloured Pencils.
WHAT TO DO:
Hand Washing Song
(Tune: row, row, row your boat)
Wash, wash, wash your hands
Play our handy game
Rub and scrub, scrub and rub
Germs go down the drain HEY! (x2 times)
• If girls wash their hands with soap and water during the time it takes to sing this
song, then they will have cleaned them well!
• Draw a poster to highlight the importance of washing your hands and display it
where you hold your meeting.
Mosquito Tag
AIM: How easy it is to be bitten by a mosquito.
TIME: 15 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Red stickers and Green stickers.
WHAT TO DO:
Give two players some red-coloured sticker spots. Give one player some green sticker
spots. These players are the mosquitoes. The other players must run around trying not
to get ‘stung’ by the mosquitoes. The mosquitoes try to stick the spots on the other
players. After a few minutes, stop the game. Tell the players that all those with green
spots have been stung by the mosquito infected with malaria.
Swat the Mozzie Game
AIM: To swat a mozzie.
TIME: 15 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Paper hat with a picture of a mosquito on it and a paper baton or a
sock bat.
WHAT TO DO:
Each player should wear a paper hat with a picture of a mosquito on it. Each player is
given a long sock or stocking with a sponge in the toe. The players must try to knock
each other’s hats off using their sponge ‘bat’. The last player still wearing her hat wins
the game!
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International Night for Malaria
AIM: To highlight Malaria in developing countries
TIME: 60 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: To organise a fundraiser
WHAT TO DO:
Choose a country where malaria is a major danger. Learn more about the
lives of the people living there. Hold a cultural event using their food and costumes to
raise money for nets. UNICEF Ireland wants to send 100,000 nets to Malaria-infected
areas. For only €14, you can buy 3 nets that will protect a child and their family for up
to 5 years. In Sub-Saharan Africa a child dies from Malaria every 30 seconds.
Maybe get the Ladybirds and their parents to take part in a Fundraiser — Most
mosquitoes can fly for between one and three miles (1.5 - 5km) at a speed of around
one mile per hour. Organize a fun run or sponsored walk to ‘beat the mozzie’ and see
how much faster you can complete the route!
Show the Spread of Germs
AIM: Cold and Flu Germs Transfer
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Water Spray Bottle, Talcum Powder, Paint or Gel
WHAT TO DO:
(By Air)
• Fill an empty, clean spray bottle with water.
• Simulate the spread of a sneeze by spraying into the air, reaching surfaces and
people.
• Spray into a tissue to show how a tissue catches all of the water.
• Explain that this is how germs spread and how important it is to use a tissue to
cough and sneeze.
(By Touch)
• Show how germs spread when hands are not washed straight after coughing and
sneezing.
• One girl puts powder, paint or gel on her right hand.
• The same girl shakes hands with 3 girls and those 3 girls shake hands with 3
others. Continue until all hands have been shaken.
Explain how easily cold and flu germs can spread. Even though one girl started out
being ‘infected’, not washing her hands will ‘infect’ others easily
Coughs and Sneezes
Give each girl a small handful of tiny bits of paper (confetti, hole punch waste, etc.),
which she must keep in her pocket. All girls stand about one metre apart. Tap two girls
on their shoulders – these are the infected people. The infected people put some paper
in their hands and blow them towards the other girls, pretending to cough and sneeze
at the same time. If the paper falls on another girl, they must do the same. Continue
for several minutes or until everyone is infected. Discuss how pneumonia and
tuberculosis are caught and why some people are more susceptible than others.
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LADYBIRDS - MDG 6

BROWNIES - MDG 6
Hygiene Awareness Poster
AIM: To highlight the importance of washing hands.
TIME: 60 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Paper/Card. Cartoon Pictures
WHAT TO DO:
Draw a funny cartoon to highlight the importance of washing your hands. Cover it in
protective plastic and display it in a bathroom or kitchen in your community.
Malaria Miming
AIM: To reinforce what Malaria is and how dangerous it can be.
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Cards with the words listed below on them.
WHAT TO DO:
• Give each Six a piece of paper with a word associated with malaria on it.
• Each Six must act out their word in silence. The rest of the Unit tries to guess
what the words are: CLEAN WATER, MOSQUITO NET, INSECT REPELLANT,
HOLIDAYS, MOSQUITO BITES.
• In the Unit, discuss how the words relate to malaria.
True/False Game
AIM: To open a discussion on AIDs/HIV
TIME: 20/30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: A list of True/False statements
WHAT TO DO:
Make a list of true and false statements relating to HIV & AIDS. Run an activity with
your pack where they have to guess which statements are true. Discuss what the pack
has learned from the activity.
Think about a situation where a family might find one of its members suffering from a
communicable disease. Produce a short play to illustrate the situation and how it could
be prevented.
Have a Pow-Wow to talk about the diseases in MDG6. Have the girls heard of any of
these and which countries do they think might have these diseases?
Then the Brownies could break into two groups maybe, two Sixes in each, to make two
collages;
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1. What causes these diseases to spread?
2. How can you prevent them from spreading?

HIV at Work
Once the HIV virus infects a person, it goes on to attack the immune system (white
cells), causing it to weaken and eventually fail. When this happens, other harmful
viruses and bacteria can attack the body much more easily, and eventually there
comes a point when it is no longer able to defend itself. This disease is known as AIDS –
it is the final stage of the HIV infection.
What’s your Reaction?
AIM: Gauge the reaction of the girls to discussing infectious diseases
TIME: 15/20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Nothing
WHAT TO DO:
Pretend one person in your Unit has an infectious disease. Everyone stands as close or
as far away from the person as they like. Make an action that shows how you feel about
the infected person. Explain why you decided to stand where you are and the action
you made. This could be someone standing as far away as possible covering their eyes
because they don’t want to know what is happening.
Infectious Diseases
AIM: To show how easily and quick disease and Aids can spread.
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Red, white and brown stickers
WHAT TO DO:
Play the following game and see how easily and quickly disease and Aids can spread.
If you have a Unit with 20 members, divide them into the following ( or adjust to
similar ratio to suit your Unit):
•Body cells (red stickers ) – 8 girls.
•White Blood cells (white stickers) – 8 girls.
•Infections (Brown Stickers ) – 4 girls.
Play a tag game with the following rules.
The aim of the infections is to tag the body cells.
The body cells must stand still once they are tagged.
The white blood cells can save the body cells from the infections: 2 white blood
cells need to untag a stricken body cell.
At some point of the tag game the HIV virus is introduced. 2 girls playing infections
(with brown stickers) are given yellow stickers and become HIV.
•HIV can tag white blood cells.
•Once tagged, white blood cells are out of the game.
The rest of the game continues as normal.
See how long it takes for the game to come to a halt with no white blood cells left
and all body cells tagged.
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GUIDES – MDG 6

GUIDES - MDG 6
It’s a Vicious Circle Game
AIM: To show how fighting infection can be an uphill battle in developing countries
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Copy or type out statements on cards
WHAT TO DO:
Cut out the following statements and give one to each girl.
Ask the girls to place themselves in the correct order.
Discuss the statements:
1) The government finds it difficult to pay its international debts.
2) The government cuts back on health and education services.
3) There are fewer education services about HIV /AIDS.
4) People don’t learn about how to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS.
5) People get HIV from having unprotected sex.
6) There aren’t enough hospitals to treat patients and they can’t afford medicines
that slow the disease.
7) People develop AIDS.
8) Poor living conditions mean that people with AIDS quickly catch other infections
like tuberculosis.
9) Hospitals can’t afford medicines to treat these infections.
10) People die.
11) Fewer workers pay taxes to contribute to the government’s finances.
12) The government has less money.
Nets Save Lives
AIM: To show how a simple net can stop Malaria
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Mosquito Net or a Net curtain large enough to section off a room
WHAT TO DO:
Malaria is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. The time most people get bitten is at
night time. It is important to sleep under an insecticide-treated sleeping net that
mosquitoes cannot get through. We do not have malaria-carrying mosquitoes in the
Ireland as they like to live in hot countries.
Put up netting – a real mosquito net if you can get one or just window nets- over a
section of the room. Choose one or two girls to be malaria-carrying mosquitoes and
tell everyone else to avoid being caught/bitten. Play the game as a normal game of
tag, in which everyone who is tagged is out. Every now and then during the game call
out “Bed Time”. At this everyone has to get behind the mosquito net, and the last
person to reach the net is out. Play until only one is left- she is the winner. Play the
game a few more times to give others a chance to be mosquitoes.
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This is can be a hard topic for people to broach. It brings up sensitive issues that can
be hard for a Leader/facilitator to handle. In Ireland it’s not a topic which is
highlighted enough in the media or in school and the girls may have very little
information about it. However it’s for this very reason that these activities can be so
incredibly worthwhile!
The best way to approach activities around HIV and AIDS is to use the WAGGGs “HIV
and AIDS Training Toolkit”. It can be purchased online at the WAGGGS website shop:
http://www.wagggs-shop.org/promotional-materials/hiv-and-aids-training-toolkitenglish-version
There is a copy in the library in National Office, 27 Pembroke Park, Dublin 4 which you
can borrow. It’s really excellent and contains tonnes of activities and games and
information.
Try two or more of the activities from the pack with your Unit.
Another idea is to invite a speaker from an AIDS organisation to come and speak to the
girls.
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SENIOR BRANCH – MDG 6

What does it mean?
80
girls worldwide say
“we can save our planet”
Introduction to MDG 7
Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Girls worldwide say: we can save our planet
The aim is to work together to halt climate change. It is usually rich countries that
produce high amounts of fossil fuels which cause the greenhouse effect. Usually poorer
countries in the developing world are the countries that suffer the effects of climate
change.
We also aim to reduce by a half the amount of people without access to clean drinking
water. Today’s water crisis is not an issue of scarcity, but of access. More people in the
world own cell phones than have access to a toilet.
Finally we want to improve the lives of slum dwellers. People move to cities because
they need to find work, education or services that are not available in the countryside.
If they have no money they will usually move into slums in the city. Slums are getting
bigger and bigger. One third of the world’s population live in a shanty town or slum.
Country spotlight: East Africa
In East Africa there is a famine. This is
due to failed rainy seasons for the last
2 years. If the rainy season does not
happen, the crops do not grow. The
majority of people that are affected by
drought are dependent on food that
they grow. One of the reasons for no
rain is climate change.
Some countries make sure that everyone has to collect rainwater. As cities around the
world struggle to address water shortages, Dhaka in Bangladesh requires new buildings
to collect rainwater on their roofs. Rainwater harvesting is an old idea, but laws
requiring the practice in urban areas are only starting to become mainstream.
“Take care of the earth and it will take care of you.”- Anon

What is climate change?
When we burn fossil fuels
to run our homes, factories
and cars, carbon dioxide is
produced.
This is adding to the
greenhouse effect which
is causing our climate to
change.
Plan Project
What is the greenhouse effect?
Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide let the heat of
the sun into our atmosphere but don’t allow the heat
to escape so it’s like a greenhouse.
Because of the amount of fossil fuels we burn to
meet our energy needs we are producing too much
CO2. More heat is being trapped than before and the
earth is getting hotter and hotter. This is causing
climate change.
Plan is working with Camotes National High School to reduce the impact of
global warming on Camotes Island in the Philippines. Students are involved in
mango growing activities conducted by Plan. The thick mangrove areas in San
Francisco protect the islands from tidal waves, strong winds and storm surges.
Girls’ perspective
Inspired by the students concern for the
environment, local community volunteers help in
the replanting process. The programme has
already seen success, as fishermen report that
fish are now more abundant in the sea around
Camotes island due to the increase in decayed
mangrove leaves which they feed on.
Climate change affects everyone. It is a slow moving process so people
think it doesn’t affect them. In comparison the countries who use the
least of the world’s resources are those that are most affected by
drought / famine / disaster.
Because of less rainfall and increased desertification people are
walking further to collect water for their families. Usually the people
who collect water are girls. This means they have less time for school work, sleep and
play. It also means that they are increasingly exposed to the dangers of walking long
distances by themselves.
Millions of people are affected by the drought in East Africa. Girls are particularly at
risk. They’re often the first to go hungry if families don’t have enough food, and
economic pressures may lead to them dropping out of school, migration and even early
marriage.
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Did you know?
• As of 2002, one in six people worldwide – 1.1 billion total – had no
access to clean water and 6 in 10 people do not have access to
basic toilet facilities.
• Some two million children die every year – 6,000 a day – from preventable
infections spread by dirty water or improper sanitation facilities.
• WAGGGS is part of the ‘Our World, Our Climate, Our Food’ campaign run together
with the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and other UN agencies and
NGOs. Find out more on the WAGGGS website.
• WAGGGS has produced badge curriculums on Food Security and Climate Change
and Biodiversity. You can download them from the WAGGGS website.
• The UN-HABITAT is the UN Agency that promotes the improvement of town and
cities SOCIALLY AND ENVIRONMENTALLY with the goal of PROVIDING HOUSING FOR
ALL.
• According to the Health Principles of Housing prepared by the World Health
Organisation (WHO), a degraded housing environment (limited access to water and
improved sanitation, insufficient living area, lack of house durability and security)
is frequently associated with one of the main causes of widespread disease.
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MDG7 is connected to the Child’s Right to an Adequate Standard of Living,
in particular Housing and Safe Water
CRC Art 24 and GC 15 to the ICESCR
Water shall be sufficient, safe, physically accessible and affordable for all children
Children shall live in an adequate house, this means that the house shall have adequate
security, space, privacy, basic infrastructure, lighting and ventilation, in a good location with
regard to basic facilities. A house is considered to provide a sufficient living area if not more
than three people share the same room. A house is considered durable if it is built in a nonhazardous
location and has a structure permanent and adequate to protect its inhabitants
from the climate conditions

Explaining to Ladybirds: Our planet, Earth, is struggling with environmental problems
such as global warming, pollution and deforestation. These problems affect poor
communities. Pollution affects drinking water that people need to stay alive. Global
warming causes the weather to change which can harm crops and increase floods and
droughts. We must take care of our planet for all the people who live on it.
Recycling Relay
AIM: Reinforces how to recycle
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Bins, pictures of recyclable materials
WHAT TO DO:
• Label containers/boxes to be used as bins with one of the following: Compost,
paper/plastic recycling, landfill, bottle/glass bank
• Get pictures from magazines or clip art of paper, food, cans, glass bottles, plastic
bottles, plastic packaging, tetra packs etc.
• Divide girls into teams. Place pictures on floor in middle of room and bins at end
of room. Call item to be recycled. Girls run up, pick up picture and place it in
correct bin. Run back to team. Continue calling items until each Ladybird has had
a turn.
Reusable art
AIM: Show how we can reuse items
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Jars, stickers
WHAT TO DO:
• Collect glass jars and lids or ask each girl to bring in a clean glass jar.
• Decorate with stickers to make a hair-bobbin jar or money box.
Enjoy the environment
AIM: To enjoy the great outdoors
TIME: 45 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: A fine day
WHAT TO DO:
• Walk outside in a park or the area where you meet.
• Ask Ladybirds to discuss what they enjoyed about the walk. What did you see,
smell, hear and feel?
• Draw a picture to show what you liked about being outside.
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LADYBIRDS - MDG 7

BROWNIES - MDG 7
Water Carriers
AIM: To show how we need containers to carry water.
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: A litre bottle, bucket, water per Six
WHAT TO DO:
Explain the following: A clean water supply is essential for us to be healthy. In many
countries water is scarce, as many areas experience drought. Often when water is
available, for example from streams or rivers it is not clean or safe to drink. However
people have no choice but to use it. In some areas, water must be brought in, by
tanker. We saw this even in Ireland in October and November 2009 when we experienced
severe flooding in parts of the country and as a result drinking water was contaminated.
Water therefore is very precious.
Discuss the different ways we use water.
Use a litre bottle to fill a plastic bucket so that a child could carry it without spilling it.
How much water does it hold? How many trips would a family need to make with a
plastic bucket to provide water for one day?
Choose a circular route in a large hall or in an area outdoors. Set a time limit, for example
30 minutes. Divide the Pack into Sixes and ask each Six to stand in a line. Give
each Six a bucket of water or a container with a lid. The first Brownie in each Six takes
her turn at carrying the bucket following the route. When she returns to the start the
bucket is passed onto the next Brownie in the line. This continues in relay fashion until
the time limit is up.
If there are plants in the play area or hall, finish the activity by watering the plants
with the water used.
Conservation at Home
AIM: Discuss how to save water
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: List of do’s and don’ts
WHAT TO DO:
Discuss saving water with your Brownies—suggest some of the following tips:
• When you are washing your hands, put the plug in the basin instead of letting the
tap run.
• Do not let the water run while putting shampoo and conditioner in your hair.
• Do not let the water run while you are brushing your teeth. Instead turn it off until
you need some more water on your toothbrush.
• Taking a shower uses far less water than having a bath. If you do not have a
shower, put less water in the bath.
• Collect rain water to water plants, grass and trees.
• Use rain water to wash your dog instead of tap water.
• Collect rain water to wash the car, driveway and footpaths instead of a hose.
84

Energy Burst
AIM: Learn more about renewable energy.
TIME: 15 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Nothing
A Poem for the Environment
Brown Owl keeps all her old paper
Because she knows we’ll use it later.
We put nightlights in jam jars
And they twinkle like the stars.
When we ramble in the park
We try to never leave a mark.
We follow the trail on our map
And not disturb the wildlife while they nap.
In the winter the birds we feed
With nuts and fruit and plenty of seed
Reduce, recycle and reuse
Because you never know
When something that you’ve saved
You now can use.
There are bottle banks all around
So why not make that clinking sound
With a bottle you have found
WHAT TO DO:
Tell the girls they must run around whenever you say “on” and run on the spot
whenever you say “off” Gradually introduce some other actions as well which represent
different sources of electricity, including:
• Hydroelectricity (girls could make a big swoosh like a waterfall)
• Wind power( rotate arms like a windmill and make blowing noises)
• Nuclear Power (do a star jump)
• Wave Power (everyone lines up and does a Mexican wave)
• Coal (make digging actions)
• Solar Power (fan yourself like you’re really hot)
85
BROWNIES - MDG 7

GUIDES – MDG 7
Worldwide Shifts
AIM: Show on a map how climate changes are affecting countries
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: World Map
WHAT TO DO:
Using a blank world map identify where the following effects of climate change are
happening: the polar ice caps are melting (North Pole. South Pole), flooding is more
common (Bangladesh and Pakistan), droughts are more common (Somalia, Kenya,
Ethiopia) deserts are getting bigger (Sahel region of Africa), some animals are at risk of
becoming extinct (tigers in Asia) (Pandas in China) (Gorillas in Congo and Rwanda),
extreme weather like storms or hurricanes will become more common, people have to
move out of their homes because of flooding and destruction caused by cyclones,
hurricanes, storms and landslides (Haiti, El Salvador, Caribbean)
Slum living
AIM: To find out what a slum is and how it affects those who have to live in one
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Nothing
WHAT TO DO:
One of the targets of this goal is ‘Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least
100 million slum dwellers, by 2020.’ 1/3 of the world’s population live in slums. UN-
Habitat defines a slum household as a group of individuals living under the same roof in
an urban area who lack one or more of the following: access to water, sanitation,
sufficient living area, durable housing and secure tenure.
On a blank map show where there are slums: Mumbai, India; Kibera, Kenya; favelas
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Slums are different in every country. Why do slums exist?
Why do people live in slums? What are the dangers of living in slums, think about lack
of water, electricity, door locks. If the Guides lived in a slum what would they miss
most from their homes?
86

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
AIM: Get the girls to track their energy usage and recycling habits at home
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Record materials, paper etc.
WHAT TO DO:
Record your family’s use of energy and recycling in your home. Write down your
results and share with your Unit. Try to make improvements over the following two
weeks. After comparing your results draw a poster to promote recycling or reducing
the carbon footprint and display it where it will be seen by your community.
Learn about e-waste (electronic equipment). Find good examples in other countries
(e.g. internet search: Edmonton, Canada, e-waste) and share the information with
your Unit. What facilities exist to recycle old electronics in your community? What
can you do to improve the situation?
‘Rubbish’ Snakes and Ladders
AIM: To show the girls how long it takes for some items to decompose
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Large cards with the items below on them
WHAT TO DO:
• Everyone starts in the middle of the hall. Ask how long it takes for items to
decompose: The right answer gets one step forward, wrong answer one step
back. Guides hold up the answer they think is correct to each question.
• Cut out the following answers on cards giving a set to each Guide (answers in
brackets) Apple core (2-4 weeks), Banana skin (3-6 months), Orange peel (3-6
months), Paper tissue( 3 months), Chewing gum (5 years, Aluminium can (10-100
years), Plastic bottle (100-1000 years), Plastic bag (1000 years), Glass bottle
(4000 years).
Swapsies
AIM: Reusing old things—and how much fun it can be!
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Old clothes
WHAT TO DO:
Bring along all your old clothes that you don’t wear anymore to the meeting. Maybe
you have grown out of them, or no longer like them. Hold a swap meeting and see
what new, free additions to your wardrobe you can find in exchange. After the swap
meeting, arrange to donate to a charity shop any old clothes that have not found new
owners.
You could also try some creative recycling aand turn unwanted clothes into
fashionable new items—use fabric scraps, beads, embroidery thread or fabric paints
to jazz up the unwanted items and give them a new lease of life!
87
GUIDES - MDG 7

GUIDES – MDG 7
Mapping the Problem
AIM: Show the impact of poor sanitation and drought on a community
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Flow Chart. Arrow Shapes/Post its. Sentences below printed onto
cards
WHAT TO DO:
Flow chart: Use the cards below to create a flow chart of the impacts of poor
sanitation and a lack of drinking water in a community. Feel free to add any additional
steps you need. Your flow chart will probably end up looking like a web, with direction.
Please put arrows to show the direction of the cause-effect.
88
MDG 7 flowchart cards:
NO TOILETS AT HOME OR SCHOOL
SCHOOL CAN’T FIND GOOD TEACHERS
LITTLE OR NO EDUCATION
REDUCES FUTURE INCOME
TEENAGE GIRLS KEPT FROM SCHOOL
KEEPS CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL
LACK OF EDUCATION ABOUT NUTRITION
YOU CAN START YOUR FLOWCHART LIKE THIS:
DISEASE
DIARRHOEA WEAKENS THE BODY
INCREASE RISK OF FUTURE DISEASE
IMPACTS ON INFANT MORTALITY
COST OF DRUGS DRAINS INCOME
IMPAIRS FAMILY INCOME
PERPETUATES POVERTY
NO TOILETS AT HOME OR SCHOOL

For this section rather than Community and International sections, there are 2 sections
called individual responsibility and group responsibility.
Before you begin work on MDG 7 take 10 minutes to discuss this idea of responsibility
with the group and its impact on the environment.
MDG 7—Individual Responsibility
Calculate your carbon footprint at the following website (the girls could do this at
home before they come to the meeting):
http://calc.zerofootprint.net/youth/
As a group discuss the results. Who had the highest/lowest footprint? Identify
areas where you can improve your results. Do you think a girl in a developing
country would have the same footprint?
Find out about water usage levels in your area. Compare this to levels in other parts of
the country. Compare water usage in Ireland to figures for a developing country. As a
group identify 4 reasons why the figures are different. Identify 6 ways that your group
could reduce the amount of water you use every day.
MDG 7—Group Responsibility
Find out about the different sources of electricity production in Ireland. Name 4
different sources of electricity. How does Ireland compare with other EU countries with
regard to energy usage and carbon output?
For Young Leaders
Make up and lead a younger Guiding group in a game that teaches them about MDG 7.
For EXAMPLE
Explain to the girls how packaging can harm the Environment. Cutting down trees-
pollution by industries – landfills for waste packages.
Play Pass the Parcel—using old newspapers and many layers of left over plastic and
packaging from everyday items, so the girls realise how much packaging is used on a
day to day basis.
Ask the girls where we could have got the paper that would have helped the
environment, and where we should bring it after the game.
89
SENIOR BRANCH – MDG 7

90
We all share the same planet
and people living thousands of
miles apart can be affected by
the same events or processes.
This is globalizaton.
Name some things that we are
all affected by:
1. Climate change
2. Education
3. Healthcare
girls worldwide say
“we can create peace
through partnerships”
Introduction to MDG 8
Goal 8: Develop a proper partnership for Development
Girls worldwide say "we can create peace through partnerships"
What does it mean?
The aim is to work together to ensure fair trade agreement and address appropriately
the needs of developing countries, provide affordable drugs and make available
benefits and new technologies, especially information communication technologies.
This is something we can all get involved in. Every country in the world can aspire to
this.
Did you know?
• In 1970, 22 of the world’s richest
countries pledged to spend 0.7
per cent of their national income
on aid. 38 years later, only five
countries have kept that
promise.
• 7 million children die each year
as a result of the debt crisis.
• The United Nations estimates
that unfair trade rules deny poor
countries US$700 billion every
year.
• Less than 0.01 per cent of this
could save the sight of 30 million
people.
• UNDP is the United Nations'
global development network, an
organization advocating for
change and connecting countries
to knowledge, experience and
resources to help people build a
better life.
“It is not in the United Nations that the Millennium Development Goals will be
achieved. They have to be achieved in each of its Member States, by the joint
efforts of their governments and people.” - Kofi Annan

Country Spotlight : Zambia
If rich countries cancelled the debts of poorer countries
they would be able to spend more money on things that
they really need to help their country. Nepal spends 7
times as much on paying back its debts as it does on
education. There is only one teacher for every 180
children.
Zambia’s debt was cancelled in 2005. Since then the
government has been able to afford to bring in free
health care.
65 per cent of Zambia's citizens live on less than a dollar
a day. The average trip to a clinic would have cost more than double that amount. User
fees for health care were introduced in Zambia under IMF and World Bank pressure in
the early 1990s. Young girls in rural areas were the main victims of the policy as their
families were rarely willing or able to pay for their treatment.
When user fees for health were scrapped in 2005, there was a surge of patients
capable of accessing health clinics across the country, many of these people would not
have been able to afford care previously.
Plan Project
Plan Ireland is creating lots of partnerships amongst agencies and various
other groups to support their “Because I am a Girl” campaign, including the
Irish Girl Guides. Across the world, girls face the double discrimination of
their gender and age, leaving them suffering at the bottom of the social
ladder. Girls are denied access to health services and education, and also face
extremely high levels of violence, abuse, and harassment. Girls in the poorest regions
of the world are among the most disadvantaged people on the planet, so no country has
emerged from poverty without investing in its girls. Only by working together can our
voice be stronger and be heard.
Girls’ Perspective
For poorer countries to achieve the first seven Goals, it is really
important that richer countries deliver on their end of the bargain with
more effective aid, more sustainable debt relief and fairer trade rules,
well in advance of 2015.
22 of the world’s richest countries agreed to donate .7% of their profit on
aid. Only 4 have achieved this. Until all of the countries in the world are
working together it is unlikely that the situation for girls will improve.
MDG8 is connected to the International Principle of International Cooperation
All the states around the world shall work together to make sure that all boys and
girls fully enjoy their rights as they are enshrined into the Convention on the Rights of
the Child. This can happen only if States help each other to eliminate discrimination
against groups of people and grave violations of basic rights. In particular, richer
countries shall address the special needs of the least developed countries by offering
them the means to be able to ensure that the basic human rights of all boys and girls
are achieved.
91

LADYBIRDS - MDG 8
Explaining to Ladybirds: None of the Millennium Goals can be achieved without
everyone working together. Global partnership means all countries working together
to make the world better, by caring for the environment, fighting poverty, sharing
wealth and giving all children everywhere a fair chance for the future. Everyone, from
Ladybirds to parents to world leaders, has a part to play to achieve the Millennium
Goals.
Helping Others
AIM: To show the girls that they should pass on their unused items
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Old items of clothing or toys
WHAT TO DO:
Talk to the girls about children less fortunate than themselves. Suggest that they each
bring in something such as an item of clothing which is still in good condition that they
have grown out of or a toy (also in good condition) they have finished with. Either ask
a member of a local charity shop to pay a visit and explain how they can help poorer
children benefit by donating unwanted items or if possible pay a visit to a local charity
shop with their donations.
Fair Trade Trading
AIM: To show the girls that they should look for the Fair trade brand
TIME: 30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Fair trade items or pictures of fair-trade items. Dice, sheets of
paper, sweets
WHAT TO DO:
• Set up a pretend shop with a selection of fair trade items and let them play shops
pointing out why they should choose fair trade items.
• Play a sharing game.
• Place two sheets of paper on the floor. One with Ireland written on it and one
with Africa written on it.
• Put sweets on Ireland. (Enough for one or two for each girl).
• Each girl takes a turn of rolling a dice. If she rolls 1/3/5 she goes to Ireland. If
she rolls 2/4/6 she goes to Africa.
• When they have all had a turn the girls in Ireland take a sweet for themselves and
give a sweet to the children in Africa. They are learning to share what they have
with less fortunate children.
Making Friends
AIM: To show how you can enjoy making things for others
TIME: 40 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED:Playdough, cocktail sticks, google eyes, box and names of all the girls
WHAT TO DO:
All the girls’ names are put into a hat. Each girl makes a little 'pal' using playdough/
cocktail sticks and googley eyes. When they have finished they take a name out of a hat
and give their 'pal' to that person, thereby swapping and sharing with another girl.
Or put the girls into pairs. Give them playdough/googley eyes and cocktail sticks. Ask
them to make a little friend. One child makes the top half of the body and the other
child makes the bottom half of the body. They join them together to make one friend.
They can then swap over so that they each have a friend to take home.
92

Fair Trade
AIM: To show the girls what Fair Trade Is
TIME: 10 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Story and Fair trade goods
WHAT TO DO:
Compare the lives of children from different countries. Tell a story about two children
with different lifestyles.
What does Fair Trade mean? Find out. Collect three Fair Trade products and show
them to your pack.
In Someone Else’s Shoes
AIM: To show the girls how lucky they are to have what they have
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED:Girls to write a diary for their day. Leader to use list below.
WHAT TO DO:
• Write out hour by hour your typical day.
• Include the time that it takes you to do most activities e.g. travelling to & from
school, helping at home, doing homework, playing etc....
• Now re-plan your day if you did not have one of the following:
ο Water
ο The ability to read
ο Electricity
ο Car
ο Enough food
ο Copies and pencils
Try to think about how important it is for you to have quick and easy access to
these things.
How might someone who does not have access to these things live their lives?
What would be the biggest differences?
The biggest challenges?
Would you plan your day differently?
Would you have different priorities?
Would you choose not to do certain things altogether?
Friendship Bracelets—Partnership
AIM: To help the girls pass on information about other countries
TIME:60 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Enough threads for the girls to make 5 bracelets each. Five statements
WHAT TO DO:
Make five friendship bracelets.
Collect five facts about how girls live in another country. Tell five friends or family
members the facts and give them each a bracelet—passing on your knowledge about
that country to others.
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BROWNIES - MDG 8

BROWNIES - MDG 8
Taste the Difference?
AIM: To show the girls how good fair-trade tastes
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Fair Trade and Non-Fair Trade products — chocolate, tea, biscuits,
fruit, etc.
WHAT TO DO:
• What does everyone know about fair trade? Have they heard of it before? Do they
know why there are fairly traded products available and how they are different
from normal foods?
• Hold a taste test of a selection of fair trade versus regular products. This is a good
way of highlighting the vast range of fair trade goods that are widely available in
most stores. Present each food one by one on paper plates. Ask the girls to score
each item out of five on a slip of paper.
Sculpture Challenge
AIM: The importance of good communication and partnership when working to achieve
a shared goal
TIME: 30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Picture of a famous landmark, marshmallows, dry spaghetti
WHAT TO DO:
• Split the Unit into groups. Give each group equal amounts of marshmallows and
dry spaghetti to work with.
• Take aside one girl from each group and show them a picture of a famous
landmark—for example, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben. Ensure that only the selected
girl sees it—the rest of the Unit cannot know.
• The girls must then go back and try to instruct their respective groups to recreate
the landmark without touching the sculpture themselves or saying in any obvious
way what it is.
• As the sculptures are being built, the sculptors must try and guess what it is.
Inspect each other’s work afterwards and vote on a winner. Then eat the
marshmallows.
As an alternative to food, you could also try the activity using sticky tape and materials
from recycling—newspaper, bottles, jars, egg cartons, boxes etc. Ensure all items are
divided up equally though.
94

It’s a Rich Man’s World
AIM:To show what a developing country will do to get work contracts
TIME: 20/30 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: List below what to offer and what to give up
WHAT TO DO:
Divide the girls into their patrols. Pick one girl from each Patrol to represent a rich
country. The rich countries stay together on one side of the room. The developing
countries stay on the other side. The rich country has decided to set up a big new
factory in a developing country. The developing countries are competing against each
other to ‘win’ the investment. As a developing country decide which of the following
benefits you are willing to give up in order to win the investment. Choose up to 3 (or
none!) and approach the rich country with your offer. At the end the rich country
announces which developing country it will invest in and why.
a. Lunchbreaks and tea breaks
b. Paid holidays
c. Normal working hours (8 hour shifts)
d. Childcare facilities
e. No minimum working age (i.e. children younger than 16 are allowed to work)
f. Transport to work provided
g. Overtime
h. Paid healthcare
i. Subsidised canteen
j. Good working conditions – enough heat and light
k. Bathroom breaks
l. Sick leave – you can take leave if you are sick and not worry about being fired.
At the end have a discussion about why people were willing to give up certain benefits
and not others. Were you surprised at benefits other people were willing to give up?
What does being a Developing Country Mean?
AIM:To open up a discussion about what a developing country is
TIME: 45 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Get the girls to do some research and bring it to the next meeting.
WHAT TO DO:
Learn about a country that is categorised as developing and discuss the following
questions.
a. Does this mean that everyone is poor or starving?
b. Politics: Is it a democracy? How well-run is it?
c. Economics: Are the people able to earn enough money to live? Is there a big gap
between the rich and the poor?
d. Transparency: Are officials and authority figures trusted? Is corruption a big
problem? Are the laws fair and enforced?
e. Security: Is there a social safety net? Are people safe to live their lives?
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GUIDES – MDG 8

GUIDES – MDG 8
Dodgeball
AIM: To show how vulnerable a person with debt is
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Ball
WHAT TO DO:
• Split the girls into 2 teams.
• Mark a line in the middle of the hall that neither team is allowed to cross.
• Throw a ball from team to team trying to hit a member of the opposite team.
• If you are hit once you have a personal debt and must keep one arm behind your
back.
• If you are hit twice you have a national debt and must hop on one leg and keep
your arm behind your back.
• If you are hit a third time you must sit on the ground because you are
‘bankrupt’.
• When sitting on the ground the player can try to catch the ball with both hands.
If they succeed they shout ‘bail out’ and are back in the game.
• At the end of the game discuss how it felt to be burdened with debt. Did you
feel like you were letting your team down? Are people who are already in debt
more vulnerable i.e. are the girls who are hopping more likely to get hit a third
time.
Tower of Silence
AIM: The importance of good communication and teamwork when working to
achieve shared goals
TIME: 30 minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Lego Blocks, Instruction Cards
WHAT TO DO:
Split into teams of six (Patrols). Each team gets a large pile of Lego bricks, with which
they must build a tower in complete silence within an allotted time, for example ten
minutes. Each team member will also get a secret instruction to follow which she
cannot reveal to anyone else in her team—anyone caught revealing a secret
instruction will have her entire team disqualified. The six secret instructions, one for
each person in the team, are the following:
1. The tower must contain 20 blocks
2. The tower must be 10 levels high.
3. The tower must be built of white, red and yellow blocks only
4. The sixth level of the tower must be a different colour from the rest.
5. It is your task to build the tower. If other members of your team try to handle
the bricks, you must stop them and insist on doing all the actual building
yourself.
6. White and yellow blocks should not go next to each other.
96

World Wide Web
AIM: To explore the interdependency between people and countries
TIME: 40 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Sticky Labels, Markers, String
WHAT TO DO:
Part 1: Split the Unit in two. Give the girls in one half a label with a country each and
the others a label with a product. Those with a country need to find the matching
product that comes from their country. When all of the partners have found each
other, give them a couple of minutes to discuss three questions:
1. What else might this country be famous for?
2. What kind of food do they eat there?
3. How might this place be connected with another country?
Form a circle and ask each pair to call out their country and product along with the
answer to one of the questions.
Part 2: Form a large circle with the pairs standing beside each other. Explain that they
both now represent the country. One person starts by holding the end of the string and
passing it to another person in the group; they must make a connection between their
country and the one they pass it to. For example; “I’m Ireland and I’m passing it to
America, because Irish people live there”. Continue this until each person in the group
has received the string and made a connection. To finish, the group task is to unravel
the criss-cross connections without letting go of the string and to form a new circle.
Debrief:
Was it easy or difficult to make the connections? What did the connections mostly focus
on? People or Products? Did any of the connections surprise you? How much do you
think we rely on other countries for products?
Product Country
Mobile Phone China
Grapes Spain
Cheddar cheese Ireland
Car Japan
Sports clothes Sri Lanka
Disney toys America
Football England
Copper Zambia
Swatch Watch Switzerland
Ferrero Rocher Italy
(From A Rich Man’s World—NYCI)
97
GUIDES - MDG 8

GUIDES – MDG 8
A Fair Share?
AIM: ‘A fair share?’ will help young people to describe the different stages in the
production of a chocolate bar, and to experience the frustrations of sharing out the
cost of a chocolate bar between the different groups involved in its production.
TIME: 20 Minutes
WHAT YOU NEED: Paper and pens, copy of the list below.
WHAT TO DO:
• Assign everyone in the Patrol a role in the cocoa-trading chain e.g. farmer,
importer (see below). Discuss what might happen at each stage in the
production of chocolate.
• Ask each Patrol to discuss their role and decide how much of the cost of a
chocolate bar (€1) should come to them. Each group then presents its
suggestions. Add up the total.
• The total is likely to exceed €1, in which case each Patrol should rethink their
costs and suggest another figure. Give them the actual amounts (below) and
discuss how each group feels about their amount. Is it fair?
• The group could draw a diagram of a chocolate bar, and divide it according to
the above figures, using percentages. In reality, the roles of cocoa buyer,
importer and chocolate company are often carried out by one company, which
means that it gets even more of the price of the chocolate bar.
• It is also important to note that the last four stages of the chain, the most
profitable, are usually carried out in manufacturing countries, which means that
an even higher proportion of the money goes to those countries that are already
rich.
Actual amounts
farmer 8c
cocoa buyers 7c
importer 14c
chocolate company 28c
shops 28c
government 15c
Source: Dave Richards and Chris Blythe, X-changing the World, Reading International Solidarity Centre, 1997.
98
COCOA-TRADING CHAIN
Farmers:
• grow and care for the cocoa trees for
three to five years
• harvest the cocoa pods in very hot
temperatures
• remove the beans from the pods
• ferment the beans for six days and dry
them for ten days
• take the sacks of beans to sell to cocoa
buyers.
Cocoa buyers:
• weigh the sacks of beans
• pay the farmer for the beans
• arrange to take the beans to the port.
Importers:
• arrange transport for the beans from
Ghana to the UK and Ireland
• turn the beans into cocoa solids and
cocoa butter.
Chocolate companies:
• buy the cocoa solids and cocoa butter
• buy the other ingredients
• make the chocolate bars
• pay for the chocolate bar wrappers
• pay for advertising the chocolate bars.
Shops:
• buy the chocolate bars from the
chocolate companies
• sell the chocolate bars to shoppers.
Government:
• charges tax on the chocolate bars.

MDG 8—In your Community
1. Complete 3 activities from the Development Education badge programme— Dev Ed
Resource or Sahan packs.
2. Complete 3 activities from the IGG Outreach Pack.
MDG 8—Internationally
1. Sign the “Because I am a Girl” petition online – help to highlight girls’ rights.
2. Through the Irish Girl Guides, become pen pals with a Unit from a developing
country. Details can be found on the IGG website (this can be used for your Senior
Star or your Gold membership award)
3. Invite someone who has worked/volunteered at Our Cabana or Sangam or who has
worked with Friends of Londiani in Kenya to come and share their experiences
with your group. You could host an international evening at the same time!
For Young Leaders
Make up and lead a younger Guiding group in a game that teaches them about MDG 8.
For EXAMPLE
Fair Trade versus Regular Products — Have a taste game and see if the girls can tell the
difference – See Dev Ed Resource pack for more ideas
99
SENIOR BRANCH – MDG 8

The Irish Girl Guides acknowledge and thank the following organisations who have contributed
to this publication:-
Plan Ireland
Girlguiding UK
World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts
Thanks are also expressed to the Chairmen and members of the IGG Ladybird, Brownie, Guide
and Senior Branch Committees for their help and assistance with the contents of this resource
pack. Thanks also to the National Programme and Training Committee, and particularly Mary
Clooney, for their assistance in seeing this project through to fruition.

Irish Girl Guides
Bantreoraithe na h’Éireann
National Office
27 Pembroke Park
Dublin 4
Ireland
©Irish Girl Guides 2012
National Office: 01 6683898/6689035
Distribution Centre: 01 6605503
Fax No: 01 6602779
Email: info@irishgirlguides.ie
Website: www.irishgirlguides.ie