Girls' Leadership Seminar

We held the annual Linguere-area girls’ leadership seminar this past weekend. This year I worked with three other volunteers to organize a day-long seminar in Linguere for 27 scholarship candidates and one of their parents. Many of the volunteers in the area came out to show their support and lead short sessions.

Things went much more smoothly than last year, probably due in part to my improved ability to plan for the unexpected here and in part to my increased ability to accept the inevitable hiccups in even the best-laid plan. This year, I wasn’t taking any chances with the technology. I rented a generator and purchased gas to run it, tested the sound system at the venue ahead of time, tested our projector’s compatibility with Justin’s computer, and tested all of our DVDs.

Yet despite all of that planning and testing, we somehow managed to melt the DVD of the career film between the time we arrived at the venue in the morning and 3 p.m., when we were slated to show it. (Hmm, I’m going to go ahead and blame that one on the crazy Linguere heat, or maybe the same malevolent Senegalese gods that have left Mary with her 3rd computer in under a year, and definitely not on our careless placement of the DVD on top of the projector’s vent.) Luckily, I had 2 extra copies of the DVD at home, so with the help of the ever-patient Peace Corps chauffeur and a quick retrieval by Rachael, coupled with an improvised career listing activity, the crisis was averted.


The technology! It works!

I’ve talked before about how passionate I am about this work with girls. To me, encouraging these intelligent, motivated girls to pursue educations and plan for their futures, while overcoming an immense list of challenges—early marriage, unwanted pregnancy, sexual violence, HIV/AIDS and other STDs, restrictive gender roles, lack of resources (money, materials, family support)—is not only important on an individual basis, but essential to the development of Senegal. I was glad that we were able to include parents in the dialogue this year, since even the strongest, most ambitious girl won’t get far if she’s fighting her family the entire way.


Playing the "Myths and Facts About HIV/AIDS" game

We invited Peace Corps trainer Awa Traoré to come out again. Awa is incredible. She has a gift for public speaking. She is comfortable talking to any group of people, with little to no planning beforehand. She’s able to push normally shy Senegalese girls to open and expand on short, stock answers without alienating them. Awa is a perfect illustration of why I believe that Peace Corps volunteers are best used as facilitators, and not trainers. Awa’s life experience, cultural knowledge and language skills, along with personal attributes, enable her to communicate with audiences on an intimate level. The things she says just have so much more gravity coming out of her mouth than they would mine. Not to mention the fact that I’d never have the courage or ability to talk about the things she brings up in her workshop (how do you say incest in Wolof?). I’m perfectly fine with doing all the nitty gritty legwork to set up an event like this, and then setting Awa free to do her thing.


Awa in action

Because it was a pretty cool thing to be a part of, for both us American volunteers and the Senegalese girls and parents who attended. Once again, the participants left the seminar giddily chatting about all the things they had discussed that day. One father who attended called me in the evening to thank the Peace Corps for supporting his daughter and to say how important he thought the seminar was. Now, someone who’s really, really cynical (and been in this country way too long) could say that the positive reaction is just lip service. And sure, it’s hard, if not impossible, to measure the actual impact of an event like this. But knowing what I do about the girls’ realities and the taboo that surrounds discussion about issues like sexual health and gender equality, I can’t help but feel confident that this kind of discussion is a step in the right direction.


Awa and Ann Marie hand out certificates and scholarships


Gagnessiry Ba, scholarship winner from Linguere


The Barkedji group


The Linguere group


The Ouarkhokh group