My camp had 22 participants, both boys and girls, all middle school age. The nurses at the clinic helped me lead sessions, as did two amazing Peace Corps Burkina staff members. We ended the camp with certificates and a group photo. The head nurse also talked about the importance of this camp and encouraged the students to go home and show their families the manuals and certificates A few days later I ran into one of the boutique owners in my village. I was with two other volunteers who had helped me with camp. We were entering the bar to get a beer. As we entered he was calling my name and yelling, “Thank you, thank you, Natalie.” I thought he was being sarcastic and saying that because I didn’t come over to introduce my friends to him. So, we went over and I asked why he was saying thank you. Turns out his daughter was part of the camp and he wanted to thank me for the certificate and for inviting his daughter to camp. He also told me that he stopped by the camp one of the days to make sure she was participating. I was so happy to see such a proud father supporting his daughter! Later in the week the same thing happened with another dad who was on his bike and started peddling and chasing after me to say thanks. He said he saw the pretty certificate and wanted to tell me thank you in person.
It has been hard for people in my village to realize the value of education and all that it can provide. The school board director of my village and I would spend hours talking about this problem and ways to get my village to care! We came up with a project called “Flags for the Future.” It involves two huge door-to-door campaigns to teach families about the importance of education and why both boys and girls should be in school. The project began by training members of the APE (Fathers of Students Association) on how to do a campaign and why the issue of education is important for the development of a village. The plan was to go door-to-door and talk about this issue, ask how many children were school age, and then how many of the students were currently enrolled. All the information would be recorded and we would track this information to see if any changes happen while the project is being carried out. If the families did have all their children in school, we gave them a flag. The flags were made for free by local tailors. Each had an image of a girl and a boy walking to school, with the words "Our Future" on top. Then we planned to go around to all the families again, at the start of the next school year, ask the same questions, and see if any of the numbers have changed. We trained several members and explained that we would start the campaign in the coming weeks. During the last part of the training we asked the fathers if they had all their children in school. Unfortunately one of the fathers, Hamadou, said no, one of his kids guards cattle. The Inspector quickly gave him suggestions, like building a fence for the cattle, or creating a rotating schedule were all members of the family could help out with this task. He seemed half interested and I began to worry about the outcome of my project. I realized I should have asked this question before picking the fathers to work with me. It would have been better to choose fathers who already had all their kids in school. Anyway, there was nothing I could do now, so we ended the session and picked a date to start the campaign. The campaign has now been implemented in two villages, and the results definitely show that there was a need for these talks on education. Most of the door-to-door visits were completed with both me and one of the trained facilitators. However, a few times I gave them the materials and had them go out on their own to conduct the campaign and record numbers. Recently, I rode my bike to Hamadou's house so that we could continue with the campaign. I arrived at his house and saw a flag hanging outside his door. I was puzzled because I knew one of his kids was not in school. I assumed he thought the flag was pretty and wanted one up regardless of the fact that he didn't meet the criteria to get one. I decided to ask him about the flag and he said, “Oh yeah, I put one up.” I reminded him of the fact that he can't have a flag because of his child who guards cattle instead of being in school. Quickly Hamadou said, “Oh, no, after the formation and our talk I realized it was better to put him in school. Since I am part of the parents association I went directly to the principal and asked if my son could go back to school.” Apparently she said yes! Even if this project only changes one families' thinking, I can now successfully say I have done just that!
Now it is the middle of July and I swear it just started. I celebrated July 4th with some friends in a village close to mine and then we had Emma’s birthday party (for the second year in a row) in my village. We grilled four chickens, played badminton, made a cake and watched the World Cup.
