Girls Club!

Since the beginning of time, like before I got to Benin, I have really, really wanted a girls club.  It's been my goal project for months.  After months of planning, explaining, and dealing with confused and patronizing administration, I finally got my club running last week.  Let the empowerment begin!

The first week we just kind of played.  I made them introduce themselves (there were 9), and we talked about what the club was going to be: a place to be together as women, to learn things that they don't get to learn in school, and a place to talk about any problems they're having.  I told them I wanted to teach them about sexual health and contraception, sexual harassment, staying in school, planning a career, and their rights as women in Benin. 

Then, to break it up and get to know eachother, we played games (some more successful than others -- the human knot totally confused them) and learned a song that I'd written (in French!) for the club:

(to the tune of "Everywhere We Go")
N'importe ou nous allons,
The gens veulent connaitre
Qui nous sommes,
Donc, nous disons:

Nous sommes les jeunes filles,
Les fortes, intelligentes filles.
Nous sommes les jeunes filles,
Les fortes, intelligentes filles!

The next meeting (this week, the 17th-ish), we did a questionnaire to help me plan lessons.  I asked about what they wanted from life, what they saw their weaknesses and strengths as being (most girls wrote "dishes" as a strength and "laundry" as a weakness), and what they knew about sex.  The results were... enlightening.  Out of the 16 that showed up this time, 5 want eight or more kids.  Over half thought that hunger and death were major consequences of sex.  And under the "what I want to be when I grow up" question, several wrote "Madame"... as in a married woman.  Oh, how far we have to go. 

I thought I should reward them with a fun activity, so after all of that we made journal covers:  I brought in all of my art supplies from home, and we made covers for the little notebooks I asked them to bring next week.  You wouldn't believe how crazy they were about stickers -- it was a race to see who could slap the most on in the smallest amount of time, with no planning or organization whatsoever.  Anyway, so we made those, they looooved arts and crafts time, and next week we'll start journaling on a weekly basis.  Yay journals!  Next week we'll also (hopefully) have the local obstetrician/midwife come in to explain the reproductive systems (I got up the guts to go ask her last week), and after that a volunteer friend is coming to explain contraception.  I'm excited to see if it works out!

I've taken pictures of some of the girls, and I'm hoping to introduce them to you as I keep you updated on the club.  Let me know if you have any ideas, and yaaaaaay for girls' empowerment!