Girls Just Want to Have Fun

The last week of June we participated in a girl’s camp called Girls Leading Our World, or “Camp GLOW.” This is a week-long camp which is planned and led by Peace Corps Volunteers at the end of every school year. Volunteers select 50 leading girls in their communities and bring them to Porto-Novo. We were able to bring 7 girls from Lalo, as well as 1 “toutrice” (mentor) for the girls. Even though we were allowed to bring 7 from Lalo, which is a lot from one village, it was a pretty tough decision! In the end Miranna ended up selecting the top girl student from each of the 6eme classes (equivalent to 6th grade) at her school.

This camp is a great opportunity for the girls that are selected- not only because they have the opportunity to learn many new things, but they get to have a week full of fun- not work! In Benin women, but mostly the girls, do all the work- cooking, cleaning, laundry, getting water, working in the fields, etc. This is one of the reasons that girls aren’t able to stay in school. After primary school (which is free), there is a huge drop out in the number of girls that stay in school. Every year in secondary school (which is not free) there are less and less girls in each class. For example, in a 6eme class (6th grade) the students will be about half girls and half boys, but in a 2nd class (10th grade) in a class of about 40 students there will be less than 5 girls. There are many reasons for this attrition rate, but the main one is that families don’t have the money to keep all of their children in school, so they pay for the boys to stay in school since the girls are the ones that are responsible for most ALL of the work at home and in the fields. If girls are allowed to stay in school, it is very difficult for them to succeed because their work leaves them with very little time to study. Thus, it is a huge achievement for the girls that manage to be at the top of their class! Therefore, we choose the top girl from each class to participate not only to reward them for their hard work during the school year, but also to encourage them to continue working hard and stay in school.

It was a lot of fun travelling from Lalo to Porto Novo with all the girls- some of them had never left Lalo before so it was quite an experience for them! Every day was different at camp, but there was a good mix of fun activities as well as educational ones. The favorite session of most all of the girls was our visit to a cyber café where they were able to learn how to use a computer (most of them had never seen, much less typed on a computer before)- and the internet! They also visited local museums and the Benin National Assembly where they got to sit in the representative’s chairs and use their microphones. A panel of professional Beninese women came to speak about their careers, how they got to where they are today, and how they balance their family and professional life. Their stories were really inspiring for the girls to hear. We also invited guest speakers to talk about personal hygiene and sexual health, women’s rights, and study skills to help them stay in school. All the activities were not educational- there were also lots of fun things too: arts and crafts sessions (the girls loved making collages out of American magazines), soccer games, singing, dancing, and relay races. And the best part of the week for the girls: they didn’t have to do any work- the volunteers did it all! We really just wanted them to relax and have fun because this would be one of the only times in their lives that they would be free to do so.

All the volunteers involved agreed that his camp was one of the most rewarding experiences of their Peace Corps experience thus far and we are really looking forward to next year’s camp!

A few pics from the week….

The Lalo gals (and Charlie!)

The week ended with a dance party- Beninese style! This was really, really fun!