Energy, sparkle, contagious, and love are only a few words that immediately come to mind when you meet Tonia for the first time. Tonia has such a powerful positivity that if I could bottle I would.
I'm introduced to Tonia by my co-lead Ursula, and instantly you feel comfortable and close to this fantastic woman. From that moment I knew she would be a hit with the girls taking part in her "Sistahood" workshop.
As soon as the girls entered the workshop room, she made them write a word or a phrase about how they were feeling right at that moment before anything began. Nervous, excited, confused, and tired were a few of those words. Then the workshop started.
Tonia is a very confident woman - not afraid to speak her mind, demand for what she believes is right and no task is too difficult for her to achieve. Among many things, she has three children, fosters more, has written a book with another on the way and encourages youth from all backgrounds to stand firm and together - Sistahood.
The workshop consisted of a few key aspects; the first was self-awareness. We went around the circle and said one thing we love and one thing we hate. Love was comfortable to admit - writing, cats, sport, family, friends, youth. Hate hit on some interesting responses including bullying, racism, spiders, homophobia and suddenly we all became vulnerable revealing something that is personal and affects us.
We then had to confess how difficult it was to speak in front of the group from the last task from 1-10. One is comfortable and ten being very difficult. We had a range of 2 - 9 understanding the vulnerabilities of some members of the group and the confidence of others. It was clear that Tonya wanted us to self-assess our self-consciousness and evaluate the feelings of the other girls in the group.
What is a woman?
The next task was to list as many things as we could to describe what a woman should be or critical factors that make up what a woman is.
Strong, Happy, Aspiring, Fierce, Energetic, Unique and Fabulous
We were then asked to find a way to express those words either as a poem, dramatic reading or something else. One group wrote a poem based on the word Suffragette and the other on the growth of a woman - it was interesting to see the different ways the girls expressed what it was to be a woman.
Trust Your Sisters
What I loved most about this was bringing the bonds of sisterhood to our Girlguiding group. The girls were learning to trust each other and create stronger friendships as sisters.
A Pledge
The final task was to write a pledge to themselves about what they would like to achieve from the project - the pledges were sealed in envelopes and read at the VIP tea party in a few weeks time. I hope that by the end of this project no matter what they would like to achieve that they all feel more confident in their skin and able to appreciate
themselves for who they are and not who they think they should be.
Thank you, Tonia, for a fantastic workshop that the girls will remember forever. You have started them on this journey of self discovery.
I quote from Maria a member of Egham Rangers:
"OMG, OMG - she was AMAZING!!
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