Educate girls and fight poverty in Senegal

With your help, Women’s Global Education Project is able to get out into rural communities and influence local perception pertaining to girls’ education, which is a vital component to achieving gender equality and advancing opportunities for girls. Reports show that between December 2013 and March 2013, our community education talks and seminars reached approximately 1800 people in Senegal. Sixty community talks and seminars were organized in 30 different locations. We’re thrilled with the level of outreach achieved as of March, and we’re confident we’ll see continued success in forthcoming reports detailing the remainder of this year!

Outreach event themes are centered around the importance of girls education, and discussions have pertained to keeping girls in school; relief for domestic and agricultural work; early marriage and pregnancy; violence against women; the importance of civil status and identification papers for children; and the issue of recurrent strikes within the Senegalese education system. Key people present for these conversations have included the presidents of the rural communities of Djilor and Toubacouta; the presidents of the associations of parents of students; the heads of the villages; the imams of the villages visited; the presidents of the Collectives of School Directors; school principals; the chairman of the Departmental Committee for the Promotion of Teachers of Education of Girls; those responsible for gender evaluation in schools; teachers; village health workers; and more.

The outreach meetings conclude with testimonies of satisfaction from the girls, parents, tutors and mentors. Meeting facilitators also report increased engagement of girls and their parents as a result of community talks and seminars. We are very pleased with the progress of these outreach efforts in shaping attitudes toward girls’ education, and we are so grateful for your continued support, which helps make all of this possible. We couldn’t do it without you!