Girls Camp

Girls camp (we called it Camp Success) was awesome! 60 girls high achieving girls from 15 schools all around the Donga region participated. There were 5 'teams', I preferred to call them families, of 12. Each team was assigned a camp 'tanti' (auntie) who was a dynamic motivated positive role model Beninese woman some of the tantis included a woman who worked for a child welfare organization, a teacher at a secondary school, and a woman who plays basketball for Benin's national team. Volunteers floated from group to group helping the tantis lead the activities. Topics that were covered were sports, sexual health, malaria prevention, self esteem building activities, what is love?, decision making, career choices, girls empowerment, and of course FUN! Arts and crafts along with many games, songs, and it wouldn't have been camp without a water balloon toss! Overall I feel like the camp went really well. I feel like the campers really enjoyed themselves and took a lot away from the camp.
This camp was also a huge learning opportunity for me as well. Before I would say that I understood the culture here in Benin and what happens but now I have an even greater understanding of what Beninese girls and women have to deal with. For example a question was asked to the group 'Who here has seen their father hit their mother, a show of hands please' more than 70% of the girls raised their hands without embarrassment. I admire each and every one of the girls who participated. The fact that the girls even stay in school and have made it a priority is amazing to me with the obstacles they face but then on top of that to have the highest female GPA is an astounding feat. Girls here have so much that holds them back from continuing education, finding a job, and becoming the positive role models that their tantis have become. Some examples are that male professors flirt with the girls. At school dances the male professors will dance with the girls grabbing and touching them in ways that would make them go to jail in the states and never let them work with children again. It is not uncommon for professors to sleep with their students. Some families even encourage girls to sleep with their professors as his profession is a desirable trait in a husband. Now of course this leads to huge problems. Professors aren't looking for potential wives in their students. Professors sleeping with girls is culturally acceptable. Most professors you talk to will say 'Oh that's wrong even though it happens' but those same people generally have slept with girls. They're programed to say things like that and then they just go ahead and do the opposite. Some professors will tell girls that if they don't sleep with them that the professors will fail them in their class. If a girl fails the class she will have to take it again potentially with the same professor. The girls who do sleep with professors sometimes receive rewards of good grades, incentive for them to continue. Other obstacles that face the girls are work at home (such as cooking cleaning and hauling water and fire wood), getting pregnant (Its not only the professors who want to sleep with the girls, I'm pretty sure there were some girls at camp who were pregnant), and money. School fees aren't expensive but if your family is poor and there are 5 children who need school fees but the parents can only pay for 3, the boys are more likely to receive this, as the boys are more likely to use their education later on. But despite all these obstacles the girls still were attending school and receiving high marks. Good for them! As a reward they were able to go to a week long camp in Djougou with other girls from the Donga. Thank you all again for donating money to help fund this camp, it really meant so much to the girls and I didn't know when I began planning that I would learn so much as well.