Day two

This morning, following a sumptuous breakfast of fruit and porridge, the day feels like a beautiful spring day in the UK. Clear blue sky and a frost on the ground!

We returned to our groups to be questioned about our own worlds, what inspires us, where we are frustrated, what would we want to change. The responses were collated and reflected upon, and we recognised the themes and beliefs which keep us together and make us stronger in our collective work.

A life story from a successful young black women challenged our western perceptions of gender equity and the necessity not to forget the culture of the young people we are educating. We then listened to another presentation from the CEO of the company 'The future of the African daughter'. She ended her very thought-provoking insight into the difficulties of addressing the third Millennium Goal, by challenging the school leaders to:

- Foster interest in stem subjects

- Create a utopia in our schools of equity

- Fight for girls' rights and privileges

- Protect the girls in our care and give them a safe place to learn

- Create an environment of support

This ties in very much with the GSA charter for girls' education that we are trying to develop in the UK. She ended with stating a quote from the New York Times: the best resources of the world are not the oil, coal and water, but the uneducated women and children of the world.

Our final session of the day, we had stories of success from around the world and we were asked to see if we could transfer some of the good ideas into our own schools, before being set our overnight task of stating what we would see as success in 10years time.

At the end of the day, one of our group demonstrated and taught her world famous circus skills of whip-cracking!!