Girl power!
by Nicole Naditz
created on Jul 31, 2015 modified on Jun 24, 2016 08:27
In many parts of the world, including our Peace Corps match village in rural western Africa, girls are unlikely to continue their education. This impacts their health and well-being, and later the health and well-being of their families and communities. We want to make connections and empower them to be healthy, educated women so they can foster vibrant, healthy families and communities. So we have the following challenge: How can we as students in California engage those in our local community and global network to support the ongoing education of girls in our Peace Corps match village in Africa?
As a result of our work, we will develop two things: a community event that includes student-created multi-media presentations and exhibits to share what we have learned with our francophone community in California and to enlist their support for the students' action plan to engage meaningfully with our Peace Corps World Wise Schools match community and increase the education rate of girls there. We also will be preparing a separate multimedia presentation to be disseminated online to the general public, but specifically targeted to organizations that are working in the country to increase the rate of education of girls there and explain how we plan to support their work in the country (exactly how we will support their work will depend on what the students decide to do).
NOTE: If this turns out not to be an issue with the new community with which we will be matched this year, we will examine other francophone countries in Africa, as well as Haiti and Cambodia (a former French colony where French is still an important second language).
1. Rights of children - Students will examine a variety of Unicef-inspired documents regarding the rights of children as an introduction to the concept of education as a right. more detail
2. Realities that obstruct education of children in central and West Africa. - This is an introduction to one situation that keeps children in general (boys and girls) from receiving an education: the obligation to begin working and earning money as young children. more detail
3. Working to ensure education for girls: one example - Students will learn about an organization that is working to increase the rates of education of girls in Cambodia (a former French colony). more detail
4. Le cas au Togo - We will be working directly in Togo (we just received our Peace Corps Match in October 2015 and she is in Togo). This series of activities will introduce the situation of education in Togo to the class while we wait to receive the bios of children in the village where my PC volunteer is working that I am planning to use as the true entry event. more detail
1. Student-run management - Students will determine roles, timelines and information/resources necessary and monitor their progress leading up to the community forum. more detail
1. Communicating with the target-language community - Ongoing series of tasks involving correspondence with members of the village in Togo regarding efforts to increase the education of girls. more detail
2. Community forum - At a local community forum and exhibit (bilingual French-English), students will provide information about the relationship between the health of families and communities and the education level of the girls/women in the community. Their goal is to garner the support of local individuals and organizations for their campaign in Togo. more detail
