Week wrap up

It’s the last week before final exams begin! The girls are deep in review classes and study hall, but still saving some time for a few extracurriculars!

New pen pals in Tanzania – Volunteer Sarah Montgomery, who’s studying at the Arcadia Center for East African Studies, arranged for the girls to write letters to high school girls in Arusha, Tanzania. The students are part of AfricAid’s Kisa Project. Sarah says the goal of the project is to help the Daraja girls see that they’re “are girls like them all over the world.”

Welcome back! – After visiting Daraja when it was still a baby school in 2009, volunteer Olivia Capra has returned to campus for two months to work with the girls and teachers in WISH class – Women of Integrity, Strength and Hope. She’ll be working with the girls in their regular classes and in small group sessions.

WISH – The Form 1 girls are well on their way to becoming strong and positive young women. This week they spoke more about confidence – which situations they feel confident in, and which situations they don’t. They talked about being well prepared for presentations and school assignments as a way to boost confidence. And when it comes to problems in relationships, they said writing out their feelings in journals or writing a letter to someone will help them feel better about the situation if they aren’t comfortable talking.

Marylene, Lilian, Mary P. and Hadija spoke to the Form 3 girls about their experience at a women’s leadership conference in town last week. They discussed some of the challenges female leaders face – cultural beliefs regarding gender roles, lack of resources, domestic issues and lack of documents – then shared success stories from the women. Most importantly, they talked about what these leaders expect from young leaders – education, hard work and a will to fight for girls in leadership.

The second-year girls talked about career planning – how they will transition from their primary career goals to back-up plans if they need to.