South Pacific Division: Project EDEN
EDEN, a project in the South Pacific Division, provides a safe environment for young women to talk about issues that come with being a woman; The program is divided, giving a day for 13-16 year olds and a day for those 16 and older.
EDEN is a young women's event with a focus on holistic health and wellbeing. Funding has been given from ADRA (Adventist Development Relief Agency) and from the Health Department to provide a space were young women can be informed and explore issues that directly relate to their physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing from an Adventist worldview.
The program covers spiritual, emotional, and physical health. The questions addressed relate to parents, sexual health, depression, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and suicide. This event is unique as it provides a safe environment without authority figures or boys present, and where girls can really talk about the issues that they face.
The event name EDEN represents the Hebrew translation which means delight. More importantly, Eden is where God created the first man and especially significant to our project where He formed the first woman: Eve.
In Eden woman was one with God: Eve was perfect in body, spirit, and soul; she was exactly how God hoped, intended, and created her to be. Eden is also the place where woman made the ultimate choice-a choice between life and death.
This is the ultimate goal for all the girls involved in this event. Eden will be a place where their full potential in all aspects can be revealed, where they can accept that they have been redeemed from their "out of Eden" state and choose to restore Eden in their lives. Eden is where they can make their own ultimate choice, to choose health-to choose life!
One of the girls who went to EDEN shared with her parents the struggles another young friend was having with depression; she reported that she knew what to say to her friend because of what she learned at EDEN.
Source: SPD Women's Ministries