Getting To Know Each Other
The new season of the Wasiliana project started today 17th of February in Sawha’s school. We met the new 10-14 years old girls together with our program officer Amalath Ismail. There were many girls wanting to participate the session, but unfortunately, we couldn’t take them all. The aim of the first meeting was to introduce ourselves to the girls. To get to know the girls even a little we asked them some questions about their school, their free time, their dreams and their dream jobs in English and Amalath translated the questions into Swahili. The girls were participating by raising their hand and talking out loud. The last question was about the challenges that the girls might have faced during the holiday season. We noticed that the question was a difficult one for many of the girls, but we were prepared for it. We asked if the girls wanted to write about their thoughts, their experiences or whatever they wanted to share confidentially on a piece of paper. The small piece of paper clearly lowered the step for the girls to share their thoughts and almost all the girls wanted to have the paper. At the end of the sessions, we created groups of the girls and asked them to write their names in the paper, so that we’ll know how many girls had been participating the session.
Girls face many different challenges just because of their gender. The aim of the Wasiliana project is to teach important life skills and prevent young girls from becoming pregnant at the young age, dropping out of school and being excluded from society. Other goals include empowering the girls and strengthening their ability to make decisions about their own lives. The goal of the first meeting was to build the base of the coming sessions in Sahwa primary school. In the coming sessions we’ll have versatile ways to speak about different topics based on the girls thought that they wanted to share out loud and in the piece of paper.
Sonja & Fanni
Volunteers from Finland
