On Feb 27, 2010 over 300 Shanghai Girl Scouts and many parent volunteers gathered at Concordia International School Shanghai in Pudong for World Thinking Day. Girls from all of Shanghai Girl Scout troops came together to learn and share ideas about some serious world issues. As Renee Johnsson, the event coordinator shared, “WTD is really about awareness, education and empowerment. We want the girls to understand what is happening globally, and then recognize their ability to be able to make a difference.”

I participated as a mom and a group leader from SCIS Hongqiao. The girls went around to various stations that were set up to address several global themed topics. The themes were hunger, water, literacy (which involved all girls bringing gently used books to donate to a migrant school in China), and infectious disease (Malaria specifically and how to prevent it and protect ourselves from mosquitoes that may carry it).

My favorite station was the one related to world hunger. The girls were in teams and they each were assigned a country and a role in a family (mother, father, child, grandmother, etc.) and were given a set amount of pretend currency to shop with. Each item in the store (real food, rice, pictures of chicken and fish, toilet paper, toothpaste, toys) were labeled with their individual prices. The girls had to shop for the items and negotiate as a team for things they felt was crucial for the family’s weekly shopping. I watched them struggle with the desire to buy a toy for the baby in the family when they didn’t have enough money for both toys and food. I was impressed by the girls' conversations about how little food their money could in fact buy.

As I watched these girls spend their Saturday learning and thinking about what it would mean to have less, how to take action to protect and appreciate our water supply, and understand the importance of literacy around the world, I was proud that my daughter and I are both part of such a worthwhile organization.