Girls have the right to say NO

Introduction

It has been a great three months since our last report in September 2022. Our journey on the GlobalGiving platform taught us a lot of experiences especially “How to fundraise online.” Our participation in the September #LittleByLittle campaign brought us one local donor from Namibia. Although it was not much in monetary value we got but we gain so much in experience and exposure. Our participation in the #MoveAMillion campaign on #GivingTuesday was also not so successful because we could not raise any funds during the campaign. However, we noticed that more and more visitors ‘peep’ into our project page and that is so exciting for us. A big thank you go to our first online donor and those visiting our project page.

Project Activities

Our project activities started off in two Primary Schools and three Senior Secondary Schools in two different towns - Rehoboth and Mariental. At the two Primary Schools about 140 learners enrolled and at the three Senior Secondary Schools about 80 learners enrolled with the clubs.

 At two of the three senior secondary schools we did our baseline survey and hope to complete the same survey early next year (2023) with participants of the third school who already started with activities. We also planned to expand operational activities next year to five more schools and simultaneously do the baseline survey at the newly identified schools.                                                               

Rise 2 Shine Project was honored to be part of the Prevention of Early and Unintended Pregnancy Campaign hosted by the Hardap Regional Directorate of Education, Arts and Culture’s HIV and AIDS Health and Wellness Department. Miss. Namibia 2022 graced us with her presence and she also delivered the keynote address during the proceedings. She stressed the importance ‘to take charge of one’s life in order to prevent falling prey to early unintended pregnancies.’ She also motivated the learners to talk with someone when someone else is trying to persuade them into sexual activities.

About 150 learners from different schools started the event with a march through Mariental to raise awareness against early and unintended pregnancies. All three Rise 2 Shine clubs in Mariental took part in the campaign and Rise 2 Shine members of the two high schools addressed the audience as well.

Challenges

 As mentioned in our previous report, we still experience some challenges to keep learners behind after school for program activities. Hunger pose a real challenge to keep and retain learners in program activities and we so hope to overcome this challenge in the New Year. We once again plea with goodwill Samaritans to support us in this regard.

 A second challenge we experience is a usual one when it comes to examination time. Some learners feel that they cannot spend time at the club when it is examination time. Although we try hard every time to convince learners it is for their best will to visit the clubs for that one hour weekly even during examination time, clubs ended up with 5 to 8 participants weekly. Seems like learners do not understand ‘constructive relaxation’ and ‘positive mindset’ because during examination time we want to prepare them emotionally, spiritually and intellectually to have the right mindset to approach their examinations. We identified this as a challenge to address early next year to find the right approach to convince learners on the importance of attending the clubs even during examination time.

Conclusion

The schools closed for December holidays on the 6 December 2022 and will only resume on the 12 January 2023. Thus we also closed down activities for the holidays and will only resume activities by the 23 January 2023. We stay positive that the New Year will bring some good news for our Project financially so that we can spearhead our implementation of program activities.