Most regions in Senegal (if not all) have some sort of gender focused event each year. In some regions it is a girls' camp focused on leadership, some are youth camps for both boys and girls, and in Tamba, it is a leadership camp for both girls, and their fathers. By including their fathers, the hope is that the girls will be able to interact with their fathers (or father figures) in ways that are not the norm, and that these men will learn to support their daughters towards their futures. Our conference was a two-day event where we hosted 26 young girls in middle school and their fathers or guardians. We had host country nationals as wells Peace Corps Volunteers help lead sessions on leadership and self-empowerment, sexual and reproductive health, the environment and our stake in the future of the physical earth, and in personal finance and business management. The guardians and girls had simultaneous sessions (sometimes together) but mostly separate with time for everyone to speak their mind. And speak their minds they did, in many different languages. One of the most unique and difficult things about the leadership camp we have here in Tamba is that there really isn't one language that unites everyone. As volunteers we speak Bambara, Mandinka, Jaxanke, Fulakunda, Peulafuta, Wolof, and French and as citizens of Tambacounda our guests speak the same. However even if we were to try and use Wolof or French as the main language to conduct various sessions there were always people who didn't understand or speakers who would translate into two or more languages. The girls' sessions were conducted mostly in French, but there were still some girls who were too young to understand French and so occasionally speakers spoke in Pulaar.
With the girls it was slow to get them active and participating in discussions, but when the sexual health sessions came around and our environmental field trip out to see some trash, they were much more vocal. The dads/guardians were always animated and continued to speak their minds about issues such as women as leaders, early child marriage, and the reproductive organs of a woman. It was amazing to see this all happening (see, mainly because I couldn't pick up on the Wolof or Pulaar discussions). It was also great to see the dads and the girls begin to interact in ways that they might not normally in their homes. The first meal we all had the men and the women ate at separate bowls (which is what we do in my village) but after that first meal the dads and girls begin to mingle. It was so much fun to witness all of these people in a new environment, socially and mentally.
Even more so it was wonderful that my host father was able to participate with his daughter and niece. He biked in each day (because he had some things to take care of as the village chief) but he was there each morning and left after the last session every day. When I returned home earlier this week I asked my host mom Raki if Bouna had told her about the training. He had, and we went on to talk about early marriage, forced marriage, and bride price. In Bambara! I then saw Mahdu and he apologized for not being able to attend which I said was fine. He said that Aissatou had told him about the training and he said "Félicitations" (Congratulations! in French). I don't know what will come out of this training for the girls in my family. Will they stay in school until the end of high school? Will they go onto university? Will they be married off before they are 18? Will they talk to their families about birth control options? Or will they begin to speak more to their fathers about what they are thinking? Anything and everything is great in my mind as long as they have been exposed to new ways of thinking and new horizons. I am excited to be part of their future and a part of this family, both the Fofana family here in Botou and the Tambacounda people in Senegal.
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