Background: In 2015, leaders around the world agreed to work together to accomplish 17 goals by 2030—these are referred to as the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, or SDGs for short. They focus on things like taking care of the environment, making sure all people have enough to eat, and improving people’s health.
The Girl Scout Global Action award calls for girls to address the Global Goals by discovering, connecting, and taking action in their communities and the world. In 2020, the award focused on SDG 5: Gender Equality.
Gender equality is when we make sure that women and men and girls and boys have the same rights and opportunities to achieve things, such as education, jobs, and income, and to be valued in the same way. The following game about gender equality comes from the 2020 Global Action award activities.
Background: This is a great game to play with your family or virtually with your troop or friends. The entire game takes between 45 to 60 minutes.
You will need five to six index cards (or one sheet of paper cut up into pieces about the size of index cards) and a pen or pencil.
If you’ve never heard about the Global Goals first please take a few minutes to watch this video. If you know about the goals, then let’s get started! Pick a time to gather with your family or to meet online with your troop or a group of friends.
On the index cards or pieces of paper write down the following chores:
You can also come up with chores that you and your friends do at home to add to the list.
Next, you’re going to play charades. To play, choose one card and act it out without using any words. Have the other players on your team try to guess what you are doing. If you’re playing virtually, pick one member of your troop/group or maybe your troop leader to be in charge of selecting the cards for each team. They can text each group/person what the card says. After everyone has had a chance to play, talk about the chores you acted out.
This activity should have given you a chance to think about gender equality and the different ways that gender inequality can happen all around us.
Be sure to check out our other videos for Juniors! And If you liked this activity, you can find more global activities from Girl Scouts on our website girlscouts.org/forgirls—click on “Think Globally.” There you can also find the Global Action Award Activity Packet and complete the other activities to earn your Global Action award.
Note: Girls, volunteers, and families are encouraged to take the time and space they need to adjust to this period of rapid change and uncertainty. When they’re ready, we’re here to support Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts to safely take action in their communities—whether it’s helping ensure kids are still getting the nourishment and enrichment they need out of school, responding to the possible ramifications of isolation during social distancing, adapting an existing project to positively impact local communities today, or something else entirely!
Troop Leaders: The instructions for all badge steps are available free of charge in the Girl Scout Volunteer Toolkit.
Girl Scout Activity Zone activities have been adapted from existing Girl Scout programming.