Girls Conference 2008

Above is our group photo - my girl, Aissatou, is standing next to me and is wearing blue. She was such a good participant. She's really bright and was one of the older girls so she helped some of the younger ones out with their French. I found out that she was in the Ivory Coast until 3 years ago, which explains why her written French is so strong. We talked about the possibility of her organizing a smaller scale Girls Conference in Timbi Madina next year with my replacement.

As promised, here's the scoop on Girls Conference...

Day 1: The girls and the PCVs arrived in Mamou and we began our three day diet of rice, sauce and bread.

Day 2: Cam and I led the official and unofficial openings - we played icebreakers and the local officials came to welcome the girls. Guinea loves hierarchies and pageantry! Then Cam and I did a session on public speaking and videotaped the girls giving short speeches about themselves. This was followed by sessions on Excision (by a local NGO, Tostan), Women's Roles, Environmental Protection and Business Techniques.

Day 3: Health day - sessions on HIV/AIDS, Nutrition, Family Planning and Anatomy, Depigmentation (skin bleaching?! is that what it's called?), How to Organize a Workshop and Study Skills. Which one doesn't belong? Study skills. But the Tostan people showed up on Day 1 after being misinformed (not by Cam or me!!), so we moved the schedule around a bit so they didn't have to stay the whole time. This was probably the most necessary day as it provided the girls with a lot of new information about their health and we were able to dispel some myths about pregnancy, AIDS, etc.

Day 4: Started with a women's panel, including my friend Madame Diallo (she's never been to school but is a successful merchant who has sent all her daughters to be educated), a woman named Fatoumata Bah from the Mamou Artisan's Federation, and Aminata Barry, a high school chemistry teacher. The panel was rounded out by Odette Leno, an Admin Assistant at the PC office here in Conakry - she was a fantastic addition to the conference and all the girls really looked up to her. We then took them to the Health Center, which is run almost entirely by women. The women took them on a tour and told them about how they became health workers. After lunch we had a Women's Rights session and then presentations. The girls split into 4 groups and we had 2 skits, one poem and a story all relating to the themes we studied during the conference. For dinner we had a banquet (a special rice dish with MEAT!! Big deal.) and then we all went to the nightclub.

The nightclub was hilarious. The girls were dressed straight out of rap videos. Just so skanky!! Cam told me he felt like he'd stumbled into an underage porn site. The guys were all so uncomfortable!! Hell, even I was a little uncomfortable! But the girls had fun and were all really excited about the club, so we just sucked it up...

The next morning everyone headed back to their sites. Some of the girls were crying and they all made sure to tell us how much fun they had. We couldn't have asked for a better conference and thank you all so much for your support! (That being said, we kept a list of ideas for how to involve more Guineans in the presentations next year and little things we could change...but for a first time post-evac conference it was fantastic!)

Above is the presentation of the poem the girls presented on HIV/AIDS.

On the left is the woman from the Artisan's Federation, in pink is the high school teacher and to the right is our own Odette.

Mary is helping the girls plan a workshop to present when they return to their villages.

Raven is helping the girls properly put the condom on the wooden penis. Well done, Raven! Not sure what's going on with the girl on the left's hair...most girls got it braided especially for the conference!!

Me, me!!! Pick me!!!!

We got a student at the Forestry School (ENATEF, where we stayed) to take us on a walk around the grounds and explain some of the projects they are doing. These seedlings are for sale and help keep the school going (although I frankly think that PC workshops are the real breadwinners for the school...they rip us off for the food, which is why we had to find someone in town to do it in order to make the budget work!)

So all in all it was a great success. I look forward to hearing how next year's conference goes and am sure it will be even bigger and better than this one!!!