Supporting Female Education and Empowerment in Senegal, and How You Can Help

As some of you know, Peace Corps Senegal turned 50 last year.  In the time since Peace Corps Senegal’s inception, staff and volunteers have worked together to create strong support and programming for gender development work in this country.  Each PC Senegal volunteer is expected to incorporate gender development work into their projects. This work is a priority for both Peace Corps worldwide, and for Peace Corps Senegal.

As Senegal volunteers, we are lucky enough to have a special resource in this arena: SeneGAD (Senegal Gender and Devolopment). SeneGAD is a committee organized by Peace Corps Senegal volunteers to focus and tackle gender issues in our communities. Specifically, SeneGAD’s mission is to empower Senegalese women, men and youth to effectively integrate gender equality into their daily lives, with the support of Peace Corps Volunteers.  As an organization, SeneGAD provides resources and support to volunteers to enable their gender-related activities (like the Kaolack Girls Camp) as well as managing large-scale projects that in which volunteers around the country participate.

One of SeneGAD’s large-scale, country-wide programs, is the Michelle Sylvester Memorial Scholarship Fund and the Michelle Sylvester Scholarship Program (MSS), established in 1993 in memory of Michele Sylvester, a Peace Corps Volunteer dedicated to girls’ education in Senegal. Its purpose is to help close the gender gap in education. The scholarship provides money for the school fees and supplies for nine girls at each middle school working with a volunteer. The Selection Committee uses a personal essay written by the candidate; an interview of the candidate by the volunteer; the candidate’s grades; and recommendations written by a teacher and the volunteer to make its decisions, based on the following four criteria: motivation, ability, financial need, and recognition.

Peter, our site-mate and friend Kathryn Harrawood, and I are working together to administer the MSS Program at the Ndiago secondary school, which is about 8 km outside Guinguinéo, and right next to Nguick, the village where we are doing the majority of our tree nursery work. The program has been administered at the Guinguinéo secondary school before, but previous volunteers have felt that the program has a greater impact in rural schools, like the Ndiago secondary school. The three of us have spent much of the past 2 weeks in Ndiago, working with the teachers and administrators to identify the students, interviewing and getting to know them, and visiting their families to congratulate them on their accomplishments and explain what their participation in the MSS program will mean. It has been exciting and rewarding, and we are looking forward to remaining connected with these girls throughout the school year, to track their progress and offer continued support when and where we can.

Here’s where you come in. The MSS program costs $180 to administer in each school. This fee covers tuition and school supplies for all 9 candidates. For some of the girls, this is truly a life changing experience. Many girls in secondary school in Senegal are at risk of being taken out of school, either because their family can no longer afford their tuition fees (around $12/year) or they are needed to help around the house, or both. MSS is a great way to recognize these girls’ academic achievements and relieve their family of the burden of inscription fees in hopes that they will be able to continue in school as a result.

To donate to our MSS Fund:

1) Visit the Peace Corps Senegal country fund page (https://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-CFD).

2) In the “comments” section of the donation page, please copy and paste the following note: “This donation is to support MSS scholarships in PCV Kaitlin Hammersley’s village of Ndiago.” This ensures your dollars will go directly toward our project, rather than into the general PC Senegal country fund.

You might remember that the Ndiago secondary school is also where we selected our 3 Girls Camp attendees, Ami Diom (also an MSS candidate), Ndiatte Ba, and Ndack Tine.  We have reached our Girls Camp fundraising goal; thank you again to everyone who supported us, and them!  Ami, Ndiatte, and Ndack are beyond excited to participate in the Kaolack Girls Leadership and Empowerment Camp in August!

Peter, Ndiatte, Ndack, Ami and Kathryn at Ndiago Secondary School

Jamm Rekk,

Kaitlin