Girls' Computer Literacy & Leadership Program

Between May 23 and 24, the multimedia center of Houndé is hosting a two-day workshop for 10 young women. The overall goals of the workshop are to strengthen writing and drawing skills and teach participants how to use basic software and e-mail. In addition to achieving these specific goals, the workshop also will encourage teamwork, the love of reading, female solidarity, and empowerment. The workshop will provide each participant with a notebook and a pen, and there will be two computers for the participants to share. The workshop will begin with a discussion of computer software’s importance in the world today and a basic overview of various computer functions. After lunch, the participants will learn how to use Microsoft Word and Excel, and then will spend three hours working in groups on a writing project in Word. For the last hour of the workshop, they will peer review each other’s work and propose design ideas for the next day. The second day of the workshop will begin with more practice on Word and Excel. After lunch, they will learn how to use Publisher. They will finish the workshop by putting their own texts from the day before on the software. The total budget for this workshop is 160,000F, about $300. This cost is split between meals, housing, notebooks, transportation, and instructors.

In other FAVL news in Burkina Faso, between May 16th to May 20th, the award ceremonies for the reading program “Leaders are Readers” took place in the Korsimoro, Kaya, Kongoussi, Sabcé, Rouko, Karaba and Boni libraries. This program was initiated by the library of the United States Embassy in Burkina Faso in collaboration with Friends of African Village Libraries (FAVL). Its main objectives are to encourage students to frequent libraries and to read. This year, 274 students participated, their grades ranging from middle school to high school. During the three months of the program, participants were able to read at their own pace. The best reader of this year is a student of the 6th grade of Rouko County High School, and he read 265 books. Students were very appreciative and excited about the program at the award ceremonies.

Participants shared their thoughts on books they read:

• Issaka in Korsimoro liked the book The Wind of Love by Joël Ouédraogo. The author discusses the behavior of schoolchildren who love each other and don’t listen to advice from their parents. As a consequence, they found themselves in messy situations.
• Soungalo in Kaya loved the book  The Pieces of Wood of God by Sembene Ousmane. Through this book, he discovered that for a while African workers were paid poorly during construction work in Dakar. He believes that hard work should equal fair wages.
• Monique in Karaba did not like the book Baba the Rapper Student by Koura K Sylvie. She believes that parents must take care of their children, and she was frustrated when Baba joined a bad crowd in high school, became a spoiled child, and ended up in jail.
• Abdoul in Sabcé liked the book  The Academic Success of Becherou. The author tells the story of a student from a poor family who strives to be the first of his class among the children of rich families. This student held the head of his class during his first class of school and won all the high school awards. Abdoul said he felt personally encouraged after reading of the novel.