Educate girls and fight poverty in Senegal

Your support of our "Educate Girls and Fight Poverty in Senegal" project helps us provide not only access to education for girls, but also crucial support services such as our Mentoring Program to help our girls succeed in school and work towards their dreams.

WGEP Senegal's Mentoring Program connects nearly 300 girls to mentors--older, educated women who provide additional, personalized support and who serve as role models. These mentors were often themselves the first woman in their families and communities to finish school, and so know first hand the struggles and pressures facing many of our scholars in their daily lives. They are able to provide support and encouragement for our girls and show them what is possible with education.

Additionally, our Mentoring Program allows our girls to regularly meet successful, educated women they would otherwise not come into contact with. This includes female professionals from surrounding areas, village leaders and regional officials, as well as visitors from around the world (recently, this included American college students from the University of Minnesota, Lewis and Clark College and Beloit College, Italian volunteers from Action Aid, and visiting staff from GlobalGiving!)

We know that our scholarship and support programs are giving our girls access to the possibility of a brighter future--thank you for partnering with us in this life-changing work!

Our project, "Educate Girls and Fight Poverty in Senegal," has been chosen by GlobalGiving for their Girl Effect Challenge! This means the chance to become part of GlobalGiving's 2013 Girl Effect Fund--but we need your help. The top six organizations in the Challenge with the greatest number of unique donors automatically win a place--so please consider donating during the month of November to help us in the Challenge. Any level--even just $10--will help! Thank you from WGEP Senegal!

Links:

• Learn more about the work of WGEP in girls' education.

• 98% of our elementary school scholars passed into the next grade, with 78% placing at the top of their class
• 92% of our middle school scholars passed into the next grade, with 64% placing at the top of their class
• 79% of our high school scholars taking the national BAC graduation exam passed, compared to the national average of 38%

Links:

• Learn more about WGEP

"We are solving a full range of challenges, beyond just funding scholarships and supplies--we are helping to change the culture to value girls' education."
 
This is what WGEP Board Member April Donnellan says about our work in Senegal after recently visiting the WGEP Sisters-to-School program there with her 11-year-old daughter. While there, they went to numerous schools and programs, visited scholars and their families at home, took part in an adult literacy class, joined a community meeting, and attended an education conference.

"It was very special to be there with my daughter, as she was able to meet girls her age and learn about their daily lives," April says. "Our WGEP program--with its mulch-tiered emphasis on family and community support--is really making a difference for these girls. We met several families whose daughters would clearly not be able to attend school were it not for our program. Teachers and tutors say our scholars learn faster than other students, participate more in class, and have confidence in themselves and their abilities.

"In many schools in our region, we are seeing more and more girls in school, and in some cases even outnumber the boys. This is reverse of long-standing traditions of devaluing education for girls. Seeing our Senegal programs at work really inspired me!"

WGEP Senegal is a "Give Knowledge" finalist in the 2012 GlobalGiving Photo Contest! You can help us by casting your vote here--http://www.globalgiving.org/poll/photo-contest-2012/ -- between now and noon EDT on August 15. The organization with the most votes wins $1,000 from GlobalGiving, with the winning photo displayed on the GlobalGiving homepage for a full day. Thanks for your support!

Links:

• Learn more about the work of WGEP in girls' education.

Our Sisters-to-School project in Senegal added an Adult Literacy program for women and a Textbook Library Exchange program for secondary scholars.

The Adult Literacy program, modeled on an existing WGEP Kenya program, gives the mothers of our scholars and other women in the community a way to learn literacy skills and participate in empowerment and support sessions.

The Textbook Library Exchange program will help alleviate textbook costs for scholars by allowing them to share several commonly owned copies of otherwise expensive textbooks.

 CLICK HERE to read more about our WGEP project in Senegal.

Links:

• Visit WGEP on our website

WGEP is proud of our graduates, who are living proof of the power of education to change lives--and of the multiplier effect of its impact on families and communities!

Meet Fatou
Fatou's family was poor and illiterate, but they believed in education and were determined for Fatou to go to school. The family worked hard to make this happen, but they struggled to make ends meet and still pay for Fatou’s education. Then Fatou was enrolled in WGEP’s Sisters-to-School Senegal.

“I really benefited from this program,” Fatou says. “It allowed me to be among the best students in my class and to succeed on the first round on the Baccalauréat.” After passing the “BAC”--Senegal’s notoriously difficult national graduation exam--Fatou graduated from high school and went for training in elementary education.

Now Fatou is impacting the next generation as an elementary teacher in the village of Soum. “Graduates like me must now be the pioneers of Sisters-to-School,” she says. “I try to help the families send their girls to school and reduce their domestic work so they can study. I give free coaching to girls whose parents are poor and illiterate. With my small salary, I help the girls with their supplies. I try to motivate my students every way I can.”

Links:

• Check out our new "Meet Our Graduates" page on our website: