Happy Holidays from Senegal: How you can help!

This year has been full of new encounters, from beautiful traditions to heart-breaking social conventions. I am still sorting out right from wrong, a process that becomes increasingly complicated as my understanding of and respect for Senegalese culture deepens.

As I have mentioned to many of you before, the area of development I have become most passionate about is gender equality. In preparing for the Peace Corps, I braced myself for extreme heat, weird food, and isolation. All centered on myself. I had no idea that the most difficult part would be witnessing the overwhelming inequality faced by women and girls in rural Senegal. As a foreigner working for an aid organization, I am in some ways spared from this treatment, but it is frustrating and painful to watch my sisters and friends treated with disrespect and often violence. Most girls in my village get married at 14 and start having children right away without the opportunity to continue their education.

Behavior change is an extremely difficult and slow process, but it has to start somewhere. I am impressed by Peace Corps Senegal's Girl's Empowerment Camps and this year have decided to organize the Father-Daughter Leadership Conference in my region.

We will invite 28 middle-school girls and their fathers to participate in sessions on goal-setting and action plans for the future, reproductive health and nutrition, and the dangers of early marriage and childbirth. For many of these girls, it will be the first time they have left their village and meeting other motivated girls from around the region will build confidence and encourage continued education.

We need to raise about $3000 to put on this conference, and are counting on donations from friends and family at home to make it possible!

Please follow this link to donate: https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=14-685-009


Here are some recent photos of what I've been up to:

At the Tambacounda Marathon for Girl's Education with Peace Corps Country Director Chris Hedricks and US Ambassador to Senegal Lewis Lukens

Hanging out with my brother Dahaba and our cousins Dahaba Keeba (Old Dahaba) and Housseinou

Awarding scholarships to driven students at the school in my village

Again, here is the link to donate to the Father-Daughter Leadership Conference:  https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=14-685-009

THANK YOU AND MERRY CHRISTMAS ! :)