World Thinking Day fund empowers girls like Angela

The funds that you raise on World Thinking Day create changes that ripple out across the world. Angela's story is an example of how your support for the World Thinking Day fund empowers girls to fulfil their potential.

Angela Arias Zuleta is a 23-year-old young volunteer with the Girl Guides of Bolivia.

After participating in WAGGGS’ centenary event the Young Women’s World Forum (YWWF) at Our Cabaña, Mexico, in 2011, Angela is developing and leading her own environmental project with her community and local government.

Make our voices heard 

“Our aim is to make our voices heard as a Movement that empowers our girls to raise environmental awareness,” says Angela of her project, which she has named ‘For a better future: Recycle’.

“Girl Guides have the opportunity to educate and influence people, firstly in their own families, and secondly in their neighbourhoods and communities.”

Angela has worked with patrol leaders and Girl Guides aged 12-14 years old to set up the project in different neighbourhoods and has also built a partnership with the Municipal Government of La Paz and the Bolivian office of the Swiss Foundation for Technical Cooperation to support their project ‘Eco-neighboorhoods’, which combines environmental education and waste sorting.

“We are empowering the Girl Guides involved with the project; they can see that they are creating positive change,” Angela says.

Developing leadership and advocacy skills

Angela says her participation in YWWF helped to develop leadership and advocacy skills that she is now drawing on to advance her own project. 

Funds raised on World Thinking Day 2010 helped to pay for a scholarship that allowed Angela to attend YWWF – the event that kick-started her potential as a young advocate for her own community.

“It was an unforgettable experience at Our Cabaña, and the main benefit for me was personal growth,” says Angela. “Principally I learned how to take action. We have to know how to express ourselves and not be frightened. I learned that there are no barriers where there is a common goal. We have the power to create change - We have to take action and we have to do it now!”

Funds raised for World Thinking Day 2012 will help to continue WAGGGS' important work to educate and empower girls around the world and help them reach their full potential as global citizens.

Events like YWWF are just one example of WAGGGS' work. Find out more about what WAGGGS does.

Angela's story was featured in the December 2011 issue of Our World, the quarterly magazine with WAGGGS news from around the globe. For more articles like this, subscribe to Our World.