Institute for Gender and Development Studies

Feminist Movement Building Summer Camp

About

IGDS Reach for Rights Camp is a feminist movement building and mentorship camp that establishes a method of outreach to secondary school CAPE graduates who are preparing for university and looking for skills training and other ventures. The camp is held on The UWI Campus in collaboration with other faculties, departments and units of The UWI, giving the participants an opportunity to experience the tertiary education environment.

The aims of the camp are to successfully engage in feminist discussion and teachings in keeping with the IGDS’ commitment to social justice, ecological justice and the promotion of gender just human relations. This camp prioritizes themes surrounding development, human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals. Given our current national challenges, this camp is a part of a broader IGDS strategy to mobilize youth and inform their perspectives in hopes of impacting our national community and world.

Objectives

• To provide mentorship and guidance in the fields of gender, ecological justice and development.
• To promote and initiate critical thinking and self-assessment about beliefs and values from a gendered lens.
• To provide opportunities that stimulate thought-provoking discussion among the campers.
• To help all campers to appreciate their natural environment and take active roles in protecting this planet.
• To allow each camper to experience and participate in group discussion that leads to advocacy

The Reach for Rights Camp been a long-time goal of the IGDS originating in discussions around the Making of Feminisms in the Caribbean (MFC) with a focus on “skills transfer”.

Excerpt from a report on the Making of Feminisms in the Caribbean project, Mt St. Benedict meeting, 2001.
Appendix 3 – Skills transfer:

“Skills transfer is a part of the overall objectives of the project. Perhaps we can create a workbook with tips, lessons, stories of staying motivated, being frustrated; strategies for teaching about women’s rights; activities that have worked to empower women and girls. Maybe we can organize meetings between generations of women activists. Maybe a short “camp” that looks at different issues over the past decades and how Caribbean women organized, strategizing together about addressing present and future issues, evaluating different activities, tactics eg. the production of “zines” (do pamphlets work?), videos, successful poster campaigns, etc. It’s a similar concept to feminist camps which teach about civil disobedience, culture jamming, etc.”