girls, girls, girls

For those of you who keep up with my haphazard blogging (mostly just my mom...) you will remember that about this time last year I blogged about a scholarship project that I was doing with SeneGAD, our gender and development project. First of all, lets take a moment to reflect on the fact that WHOA! I have been here for a long time. Second of all, let's talk about how awesome girls are.

SeneGAD's Michele Sylvester Scholarship works with female students at the college level, which is about the equivalent of middle school in America. Volunteers work with school directors to choose nine girls with exemplary educational records, but who exhibit financial need. The girls have to write an essay about their goals and aspirations for the future, complete an interview, and the volunteer follows this up with a home visit. All nine of the girls have their school registration fees paid, and three of them are chosen by the SeneGAD scholarship committee as winners, who will receive an additional gift of school supplies.

Now let's talk about why this is important. Staying in school is not that easy in Senegal. Back home, you just have to show up every year, your parents take you out for new school clothes, some shiny new binders, notebooks and pens. Here, if you are lucky, your parents will pay your school fee, and maybe you can get a notebook and a few pens from an older sibling. And if you have the good fortune of being a girl, it becomes just a little bit trickier.

One of my sisters, Awa, is about 12 - let me give you a quick run down of her day. She pulls water, she pounds millet, she does the laundry, she sweeps the compound, she watches over the younger children. And she squeezes a bit of school in the middle of all that. If her teachers show up that is. And let me tell you, Awa has it easy. She has grandparents who care about her, and her education (and, lucky girl, she has a PCV with a never ending supply of pens). Not everyone is so lucky.

So what does this scholarship do? It helps a girl stay in school for one more year that she might not have been able to afford. It gives her the tools that she needs to succeed in a system that is faulty in the first place. It shows her family that she is worth the investment. Because she is.

So instead of getting your daily Starbucks, or going to the movies, or out to dinner, send a few dollars this way and help us to fund the Michele Sylvester Scholarship for the girls across Senegal.

You can donate here, and please indicate my name in the comment section so that the money goes to scholarship fund. Thank you!