Girls Camp!

I've mentioned a girls' camp a few times over the past couple of months but here's a full explanation of the project:

A group of 10 volunteers, myself included, decided to create a week long summer camp for a handful of high-achieving middle school girls. Aside from the one camp set up by volunteers in another region, summer camps don't exist in Senegal... so we started pretty much from scratch. First, we decided on the campers: a total of 40 girls aging from 12-15 from Bambey, Pout, Mboro, and a small village outside of Thies. We chose the girls because they had the highest grade averages among their female peers. Most of the girls face financial constraints when going to school and they all struggle with the social pressures of women's roles in life. For example, several of my girls live with a distant family member during the school year because their parents live in a village without a middle school. In addition to doing their school work (the school days last from 8am-7pm), they're often in charge of all of the household chores in exchange for their school year board. I've had interviews with all of the girls and they're extremely bright and very motivated to finish school. Once we found our cause, we had to get a community partner (we wanted to have the full support of the community).

While looking for possible sites and partners, I met the Secretary General of the University of Bambey who immediately loved the idea and pledged his full support. We then hit a rough patch trying to negotiate everything with the university, but recently the agreement was made official. They're providing us with free lodging for the entire week, about 10 students who will act as camp counselors, and are hoping to eventually take on the project on their own.

Now that we have the location and the girls, we're working on the final schedule. The entire camp has been themed "our world" to try to encourage the girls to take ownership of every aspect of their communities including: the environment, their health, money matters, and planning for the future. The camp will run from September 26 - October 1, and we've already planned follow-ups with the girls. In addition to the campers and university students, we're bringing a female teacher from each of their schools. We hope this project not only affects the 40 girls, but that they have a ripple effect on their peers and siblings.

Because the housing has been provided, we need to buy food, supplies, and transportation for the girls. The total amount needed is $2491.13 and you can donate (or just read more about the project) here! If that doesn't work, you can go to www.peacecorps.gov and search for the project using "Senegal" or "regional girls camp" as your keywords. All donations are tax deductible.

I understand that not everyone can donate, if that's the case, please just send us your positive thoughts. If you have any questions or would like to get involved in another way, please contact me. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post of some of my future campers tomorrow.

Thanks for all of your support (and I hope everyone's enjoying the World Cup)!

KO