Girl guides go salsa dancing, do yoga and learn about drug awareness, rather than learning more traditional skills. But they're still happy campers, writes Suzanne Lynch

It's 6.50pm on a Monday and, as a group of girls gather in Portmarnock, Co Dublin, the air is filled with the sound of greetings, gossip, and last-minute searches for forgotten items. The reason for this gathering of girls? A disco? A sleep-over? No, it's the weekly meeting of the girl guides.

Long associated with knapsacks, cook-outs and songs around the camp-fire, the girl-guides organisation is "rebranding" to appeal to 21st-century girls. Now, with more than 10,800 girl guides countrywide, the organisation is flourishing.

Emma Ryan (14) has been a girl guide for the past two years. "I joined the girl guides because my friend Julie was a member. I used to think it was quite old-fashioned, and I thought we'd be doing boring activities like sewing and cooking, but we do really interesting things. Last week we learned how to salsa dance and next week we're going on a camping trip. It's great fun, and I've made really good friends in the group."

Certainly, there is a modern feel to the girl-guide meeting at St Helen's national school, Portmarnock. Gone are the stiff, navy uniforms of the past - the coloured neckerchiefs are still there, but now they are teamed with jeans or tracksuit bottoms and a casual blue sweatshirt. This week the girls are taking part in a yoga class, while last week they had a discussion about self-esteem and bullying. Elsewhere around the country, it is not unusual for girl-guide groups to undertake courses in hairdressing, drug and alcohol awareness, even drumming. It's a far cry from girl-guide meetings of the past, when sewing, cooking, and uniform inspections were the main activities.

The attempt to make girl guides relevant to modern society is not accidental. Last year, the World Association of Girl Guides undertook its first global survey to establish the issues affecting girl guides. The results revealed how far girl guides had come from the days when domestic duties were the primary concern. Adolescent pregnancy, the spread of Aids, sex education and the dangers of drugs emerged as the main issues facing girls today. As a result, the organisation has embarked on a re-branding strategy. The result is a new image.

According to Elspeth Henderson, an Irish woman who chairs the World Association, the re-branding is an attempt to make guiding relevant to the modern world. "What we hope is that our new identity will be exciting, fresh, modern and meaningful. Its aim is to change the perception of the public, governments and even the guides themselves in a way that will enable us to have a stronger voice and an ability to thrive in an increasingly complex world."

Now guides in the developing world can undertake courses in Aids awareness and prevention, literacy, and reproductive health issues. The association is making an impact on the world stage, and has been actively involved in policy-making in the areas of human trafficking, nutrition, and vaccination. It has representatives at the UN and works closely with international agencies such as Unicef and the World Health Organisation.

Fostering awareness of social and political issues is also an important aspect of girl guiding in Ireland. In recent years, the Irish Association of Girl Guides has worked closely with Concern. Its recent programme, "Concerned about Chocolate", for example, used the medium of chocolate as a way of exploring serious social and political issues, as guides were introduced to some of the issues surrounding the production of chocolate, such as child labour and Fair Trade.

The idea of education through fun is one of the core values of girl-guiding. "Non-formal education was a central aspect part of the girl-guide mission from the beginning," says Henderson, who is a former secondary school principal, "In this sense guiding was very much ahead of its time. Especially in the early days when children were seen and not heard, and schools were based on a strict hierarchical distinction between teacher and pupil, guiding encouraged girls to learn through fun and peer education."

As well as these specific campaigns, there is also a more general sense that the Girl Guide Association is taking account of the changing role of women in society. The recognition that guides these days are more likely to be preparing themselves for a professional career rather than for a life in the home is evident in the language employed by the Girl Guide Association. Its website talks of 'leadership', 'team-building' and 'responsibility', terms that have become buzz-words in today's corporate culture. The sense that guiding provides girls with the skills and qualities necessary to succeed in the professional world is never far from the surface. The parallels are not lost on Henderson.

"I have often been struck by the fact that companies spend thousands of pounds each year on 'team-building' days. Girl guides have been doing these things for years. Values such as leadership, problem-solving, and teamwork have been integral to guiding from the very start. Increasingly, I am meeting employers who tell me that former girl guides have the very qualities and skills they are looking for."

See www.irishgirlguides.ie