Girls Camp

Well the newest project Ive come to find myself working on is girls camp. Its an empowerment camp for girls, teaching girls about self esteem, business, encouraging them to stay in school, and giving them positive role models of Beninese women who are in positions of power, authority, basically any woman who is breaking down gender roles. This means any woman who doesnt work in the market selling vegetables, not that this isnt a noble and needed profession, it would be nice to see at least more women working as doctors, as teachers, as business owners, etc. Womens rights are very different here in Benin. This is how your life looks as a girl, you wake up and help your mother gather fire wood in the forest, Ive talked with some women and they said that they walk 6 kilometers total to find fire wood, they do this very early in the morning, and women and girls are returning with HUGE stacks of firewood on their head, some stacks are larger than the people carrying them. then the girls make breakfast for the their brothers and father, and smaller children in the family with mom, girls then wash and get ready for school, boys wake up around the time that girls get breakfast ready. Then you go to school where you sit in a class that dominated by boys. For school your parents need to pay your school fees, which arent cheap, all your notebooks, pens, paper, and you have to wear a uniform, which if youve grown you need to buy more faberic, and have another uniform made or your old on taken out. Girls in class are normally quiet and WILL NOT answer even if called upon because they are shy, this is of course not true for all girls. Another thing that happens at schools far more often than it happens in the states is that professors sleep with their students, and sometimes the girls grade will be hung over her head if she doesnt sleep with the professor. This is not all professors and teachers but it does happen more often than it does in the states. Then you go home for break, a 3 hour long lunch break. Where you may or may not need to help your mother cook, but you get to clean the house too, and clean up from after lunch, you also then take a nap. You go back to school for a few hours, then you go home where you cook and clean for dinner, you then get a chance to do your homework. by now its dark and if your house doesnt have electricity you need a lamp to do your homework, you also need gas to put in your lamp. Then you go to bed and wake up and do it all over again.
Some reasons why girls dont go to school or stop going are, they get married and become baby factories, they get pregnant, the age of appropriate pregnancy is much younger here 16 is a good age to start having children, there isnt enough money to pay their school fees, they find an aprenticeship at a local seamstress or other technical education, your parents have thought that you have had enough education and you now get to help mom and gram sell onions and greens in the market. You then stay in Bassila for the rest of your life because there are no other opportunities for you, other than selling onions in the surrounding markets on market day, or getting married. A woman living alone here without a husband is completely unheard of, this is a reason why its very strange to see the white girls, me and my postmates, living alone without husbands. During training I was asked if I had a husband, and I lied and said yes, and then they asked, why didnt you bring your children with you? people are very suprised when they hear my age and that Im not only childless but Im also unmarried.
So these reasons are why a girls empowerment camp is so important. To show girls that getting married making babies and selling food doesnt have to be their future, they can do other things. But staying in school is the first step. You cant do much without access to information this is another reason why I personally would like to see more girls use the internet cafe 9 times out of 10 Im the only girl using the cyber cafe. This is very sad and I would like to see more girls know how to use the internet and then use it for research, finding better jobs, seeing how the developed world has opportunties for women, and so on. So basic run down of the camp, for one week during the summer girls who are about 15 or 16 in that age range apply for the camp, girls are chosen for the camp not based on how much money their parents make but rather motivation and enthusiasm. They stay in all one place and they do activities together. Some topics covered are sexual health, sports, internet usage, self esteem building activites, environmental education and recycling of waste, sounds like this might be my calling, business discussions, common social problems associated with gender, arts and crafts, fun time, guest speakers, and whatever eles we want to pack into the camp. I think this could be really fun, and definately worth the time and effort to plan.