Whenever we have new journals at WISH, every woman wants one. Many women came in and asked for journals and they would always say “I need a journal”. When we asked women to describe this need, they said it came from having no one who listens to them, and no private thought space. One woman said she came in to the Learning Centre to write because every time she turned on the light in her hotel room, people barged in assuming she had drugs. Women also said they needed a journal because they wanted to have real conversations about life, not just talking about drugs or pretending to johns that they were brainless.
Many women learned to use journal-writing in treatment facilities. Other women used to write poetry when they were younger. Access to a new journal is always met with appreciation.
We tend to buy our journals at dollar stores and we select many different styles so that women have a choice of colour and format. We always buy some blank books for women who draw or put pictures into their journals. It is also possible to use plain notebooks that each woman can decorate with fancy paper, collages, etc. This activity can be the beginning of a journal writing segment.
Although giving away journals is easy, it is an impossible task to get everyone in the WISH Learning Centre writing in their journals at the same time. So instead, we came up with a “Journal Starter” that we put on the board at the beginning of each evening. Some women wrote in their journals, and other women discussed the topic over beading or other craftwork. Because women come in and out of the Learning Centre, the topics generated many different conversations. We encouraged women who wanted to share their thoughts to read aloud or submit their work to the newsletter (for more information on the newsletter see chapter on Leading).
We have included a list of journal starters. Some are open-ended sentences, some are quotes that we ask women to respond to, and some are strong statements that encourage strong agree/ disagree reactions. Many of the statements on the list were made by women on the Curriculum Committee.
There are also many other ways to encourage reflection. We have a set of rubber stamps with Adinkra symbols from West Africa on them. The symbols are shapes that represent concepts such as hope, …
To use these stamps as a journal activity, we placed the rubber stamps on a tray and gave each woman a handout of what each symbol meant. We suggested that women let themselves be drawn to a symbol, then look up its meaning. Then they decorated a page in their journal with this symbol and wrote about the meaning. Other women went from the definition and looked up the symbol. This activity always works as a discussion/writing starter. It also gets us thinking about the geography of Africa and the culture of Ghana. (Have an atlas handy!)