Kaolack Girls’ Leadership and Empowerment Camp: A Call for Support!

Some of my best, and most defining childhood moments happened at summer camp. Jumping off the high-dive for the first time at County Camp, leading my [miniature] horse over the highest jumps in front of the parents at Toni’s Mini Horse Camp, a jerky counselor flipping my canoe over in the middle of an alligator-infested lake at YMCA camp in central Florida (this experience was a defining one, but not one of my best), and being introduced to hiking and mountaineering at Camp Merrie-Woode in North Carolina. I am aware that my childhood was especially privileged regarding the variety and number of summer camps attended, but I am not alone in citing camp experiences as some of the most important in my youth.

In Senegal, camps don’t really exist. Kids don’t have this opportunity to have time and space away from their families to focus on themselves, and to experience and cultivate new ideas and interests. Leave it to Peace Corps volunteers to do something about it, and utilize the summer camp model for youth empowerment and learning. For years, Peace Corps Senegal volunteers have held regional camps; each year they learn from the last, and the camps get better.

In August 2014, Peter and I will [inshallah] have the opportunity to attend the Kaolack Regional Girls’ Leadership and Empowerment Camp and bring young girls (aged 13-15) from the Guinguineo area to participate. The Kaolack Regional Leadership and Empowerment Girls Camp’s goal is this:

By the end of the camp, 40 girls will return to their communities with increased awareness, higher capacity for leadership, and ultimately be catalysts for change in their classrooms, cohorts, and communities.

We will accomplish this goal through the following objectives: encouraging critical thinking skills, increasing participants’ self esteem, and fostering a support network among high-achieving peers across the Kaolack region.

The camp will span a week, each day with a different theme/focus- Identity, Health, Environment, Gender and Future.  There will be programming from 8AM to 10PM, from core lessons relating to the days’ focus, to energizer, craft, discussion, and sports sessions to encourage confidence, creativity, and meeting new people.

Here’s where you come in. The 5 amazing Kaolack Girls’ Camp organizers, Adele, Sam, Rachel, Elise and Sabrina, applied for a Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP) Grant to cover the costs of the camp, so that our friends and families back home can contribute directly to this special cause. If you believe in this cause, and can spare a few dollars, click HERE to contribute to the Kaolack Girls’ Camp Grant.

I can only hope that in a few short years, my sisters Ouli (9) and Soda (8) will have the opportunity to attend a Peace Corps girls’ camp!