Girls Time Out!
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Teenage girls, three days, endless bags of make-up, over 50 outlet stores and one massive mall - for many it would be their worst nightmare, but for the seven vision-impaired girls it was a school holiday highlight.
"It was great," said 17-year-old Phillipa Gray from Thames. "As well as the shopping it was cool to talk about other things like friendships and guys and that it's OK to be vision-impaired."
Organised by the Foundation's Recreation Service, "Girls Time Out" bought the teenagers from around the upper North Island to Auckland for three days.
Staying at Homai campus, not only did the girls get to shop till they dropped at Auckland's outlet stores and the latest and largest mall, Sylvia Park, but there was also a workshop on make-up and a session on healthy relationships.
"Girls are girls. They're into shopping, clothes, make-up, earrings and boys. Just because you're blind or vision-impaired doesn't mean you can't look the same or do the same things as everyone else at school," says Glynis Smith, RNZFB Recreation Instructor and Girls Time Out organiser.
"We had a session on how to put on make-up which included tips for applying mascara and keeping it off your cheeks - something sighted women would have found helpful!
The relationship workshop was also very successful. Because it was a small group and we had already spent a few days getting to know each other the session worked really well with everyone participating and hopefully, taking away some useful information."
Girls Time Out is about helping young blind and vision-impaired women achieve independence. It was the first time for many to go shopping without their mums.
"It was great to be shopping with people like me," says 18-year-old Stacey Dewar. "When I go out with my sighted friends I take heaps longer to browse than they do so it was nice to be able to take my time."
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