The Power of a Cookie – Facilitated by Brownie Troop 2620

This post was contributed by Karyn Nishimura Sneath, Circle of Sisterhood Foundation Vice Chair. Sneath is a proud Sigma Kappa, runs her own business and is busy raising a young philanthropist! 

During Brownie Troop 2620’s “My Community” meeting, the girls learned about companies and organizations that give back to the community in various ways – sponsoring a softball team, buying backpacks and school supplies to local children, cleaning up the environment, etc. I taught the girls about the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation so the girls could be inspired for their upcoming “Taking Action Project.”

We fired them up (imagine 10 inspired and action-oriented eight and nine-year-old girls in one room)!  They learned about how girls don’t get the same access to schooling as boys and they learned about the work of CofS and how they could promote girl power by empowering others just like them.

The girls learned how far a dollar stretches in the developing world and discovered they could donate to support girls’ education by donating:

• 24 cents – giving a girl a notebook and pencil
• $3.30 – helping a girl get a nutritious noon meal for a year
• $7.00 – buying a girl a whole set of textbooks
• $29.00 – clothing a girl with a school uniform
• $58.00 – buying a bicycle to get to and from school (many of whom have to walk over 8 miles every day)
• $49 – paying for a teacher’s salary

The girls took a vote and decided that they would donate a portion of the money their troop raised through Girl Scout cookie sales. Those future leaders decided $70 would go to CofS for the school build. That’s a lot of money considering the troop received just $.55 a box!  Another generous Brownie mom (Agnes Schade) donated to supplement the girls’ gift and then asked her company for matching dollars. In total, the Troop is donating $240!

Our last troop meeting was led by a Brownie mom, Marisa St. Louis, who went all-out to teach the girls about Senegal, West Africa (home to our school build). Here are some facts she shared with our troop:

Senegal: is located in Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania

Area: Senegal covers an area of 196,190 sq km (about half the size of Sweden and slightly smaller than South Dakota).
Capital City: Dakar
Population: Just under 13 million people live in Senegal.
Language: French (official), Wolof, Pulaar, Jola, and Mandinka
Religion: Muslim 94%, indigenous beliefs 1%, Christian 5% (mostly Roman Catholic)

African Facts:

• Africa is the second-largest continent on Earth, with an area of 11.7 million square miles (China, India, Europe, Argentina, New Zealand and the mainland of the U.S. could fit into the continent of Africa).
• There are 53 countries in Africa and approximately 1 billion people.
• Africa contains the world’s largest desert, the Sahara, which makes up an area greater in size than the entire continental U.S.
• More than 1,000 languages are spoken in Africa.
• Africa is home to the Nile, the longest river in the world – flowing through Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.

Ten elementary school girls in Central Indiana have been fired up to take action to fund and support education to girls through Circle of Sisterhood.  What will YOU do this month?