The Girls

So though I have a lot to say about France right now, here's an article a fellow Senegal RPCV (now hanging out in Chile, then coming to France in January) posted.

Some of my faves: Sorkhna, Rose, and Awa

Giving African Girls a Chance to Learn

A lot of my Kaolack PCV friends worked with this organization, 10,000 Girls, while I was in Senegal, in varying degrees.  I never did because my schedule was pretty insane, as you know, but I always heard remarkable things about their work.

One paragraph especially stuck out to me.

"I researched the whys and wherefores of the little girls' educational failures. I found that of every 60,000 girls who enter first grade, only 4,500 finish primary school in the region of Kaolack. Of those 4,500 students entering middle school, only 1,500 will enter high school. Five hundred will graduate with a high school diploma, 150 will enter university, and 15 will receive their university degree."

15.  If a girl fails primary school two years in a row she is kicked out.  Or if she turns 15 in primary school, she is also kicked out at the end of the year.  It may sound old, but I knew many 14 and 15 year old girls who had delayed education and thus in the equivilent of 4th grade towered over some of their 9 year old classmates.  But they were still in school and that's what mattered.  They wanted to be there.

Mbarrou, Adama, Absa, Bigue, Ndiaye, Jambar, Fatou Khady, Jabu, Awa, Ndeye, Siga, Rose, Sauce, Ami, Sorkhna, Rhoky, Mame Gnilan, Fatou, Codou, Congo, and these are just some of the girls who touched my heart and who may never finish their studies, and probably don't even dream of making it through university as I have.  That's more than 15 names right there.  Maybe 5 or 6 of them will get to high school, and hopefully at least a few of them will graduate.  Absa's mom almost finished high school (making her the highest educated woman in Ndiomdy), so she has a higher chance of attending and hopefully completing high school as well, but the other girls?  Most of their mothers can't even read French. 

[I'm so proud of these girls and love them so much, which is part of why I organized and led activities at area schools, to help keep them there. I hope that someday the French students I work with will realize how blessed they are as well, instead of striking.]

What can be done?  I don't know and this entry isn't a chance for me to get on a soapbox to preach about the plight of my beloved village nieces and what we need to do--it's just to spread knowledge and appreciation of how blessed we are. 

The girls' mater watering team in the garden.  They put the boys' teams to shame.

Just another thing to be thankful for this November.