Just enough time to re-read papers

After a very busy few months I am sat in Heathrow airport waiting for the remaining UK delegates to arrive before we check into the flight. With this time and the time in the air I should have enough time to re-read all the papers we have been sent over the previous months!

My June has consisted of many 'Free Being Me' sessions (a project in partnership with Dove and WAGGGS around Body Confidence) with Brownie and Guide Units (7-14 year olds). In Girlguiding we are delivering this through our peer education programme (4) so as a Peer Educator I have been able to interact with hundreds of girls and young women running fun informal activities to get them to think about and challenge the image myth. Within a few minutes of the sessions girls are starting to comment that there is no one way to be beautiful and everyone is unique and special in their own ways, when at the start many believed there was only one way they could be beautiful. Not only do the sessions have this impact it also raises their self esteem and confidence. One severely dyslexic participant, who would never read out loud, at the end of the first session read out a press release in front of her unit, the leaders were so shocked to see this change in such a short time. This experience has been incredible and I cannot wait to share it with other member organisations and hear their stories of the project.

As a member of the young delegation I have already been in contact with many others of a similar age through the powers of social media. All seem as excited as me, and organisers posting pictures of things we will be doing in our leadership challenge on Saturday has made us even more excited! Some of us may even get to go on cable cars! So watch out for a blog from me on Saturday evening all about my fantastic exploration through Hong Kong!

So time now to catch up on reading I need to do to feel 100% prepared for the conference, and a read over of my speech about 'Free Being Me' for later on in the week!