To empower, encourage and inspire. Kurason I-sengsong, more commonly known as Island Girl Power, has been providing support and education to the young girls of Guam since 2001.
Director Juanita Blaz, who’s been with the organization since the very beginning, built the community center from the ground up alongside other women. “There was just a wonderful group of women that really wanted to help with the problems of suicide and teen pregnancy,” Blaz said.
Since its opening, the organization continues to grow and expand. In 2005, they moved from Tiyan to Dededo and had their expansion in 2014. They’ve been supported by many different volunteers, such as high school and college students looking for community service or job training. However, the pandemic played a big factor in the stability of the center.
“Things have grown and shrunk and grown and shrunk, but we always manage to stay open throughout even the pandemic,” Blaz said. The organization has helped support many families detrimentally affected by the pandemic. “We always had some kind of activities going on, and our community garden had the most activity during the pandemic,” Blaz said. In terms of their relief efforts, Blaz said, “We were handing things out at the fence line to families.”
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