Take our Daughters to Work Camp

Sometime in the middle of July, a local NGO contacted Peace Corps for help with their annual UNICEF-sponsored girls camp focused on bringing up-country girls down to Kombo to meet successful professional women there. The rationale is that there aren't a lot of women that fit that description up-country, so many girls don't have female role models to inspire them to strive to achieve more than simply becoming housewives. The camp was scheduled for the end of the month, so we didn't have much warning, but despite the late notice, we rallied and five of us identified smart, motivated teenage girls from our areas and brought them down for the camp. While I have to admit the camp's logistics were a bit of a nightmare, it still was an amazing experience for the girls (some of whom had never been to Kombo or hadn't been for many years) and we had a blast.

The girls visited and/or met women working in the following professional settings: Gambia Teachers' Union; Julbrew bottling company; a very successful female tailor with a team of men working under her; Gambian Technical training Institute; a women's oyster-harvesting cooperative; the Female Laywers Association of The Gambia; a young female journalist; and The Forum for African Women Educationalists, Gambia Chapter.

The girls also got an opportunity to visit the national museum, go up the famed arch in Banjul for a bird's eye view of the city, and went on a mini-shopping spree at the biggest shopping center in the country. We also helped facilitate a variety of interactive life skills lesson on topics like leadership, teamwork, role models, and sexual health education. Here are some picture from the camp:


We asked the girls to get in line for breakfast and this is what happened. Sigh. Pick your battles, right?


The first of many dance parties

Opening ceremony. The ambassador came! In her speech, she encouraged the girls to dream big and start dreaming NOW. She told them that if they want to have a husband and kids, that's great, but if they really want to help their families, their communities, and their country, that's simply not enough.

Me with my girls

Koko explaining a game to the girls. They all closed their eyes and one side of the table raced the other side passing a hand squeeze down the line to the end. The last person grabbed the roll of tape when the squeeze got to them. Yay teamwork...

They LOVED the game!

Pairing up by picking a shoe from the pile and finding its owner

Awa, a very inspirational young journalist who came to talk to the girls

The girls' role models

A group from a school in Kombo came and did a presentation for us

Group picture of the girls showing off their Africell shirts before the shopping center excursion

Group shot in front of the arch in Banjul

Killing time by posing with the kankeron statue while waiting to go up the arch

Still killing time. Two of my girls playing games with some random kids.

Finally going up. They were SO excited...

Some of Koko's girls looking out over Banjul. Most of the girls had never been up this high before.

Beaded jewelry the girls made

Performing one of many dramas. This one was about the dangers of "sugar daddies" - men who help girls out financially and buy them things with the expectation that they will be compensated with sexual favors.