All workshop topics and training sessions are co-designed with the students it serves. Based on students’ input, WGEP program staff then develops workshop topics and training curriculum around those topics and issue areas. In the past, students have chosen topics such as conflict resolution, public speaking, advocacy, women’s rights, and a fifth, boys-only workshop on positive masculinity. When topics are chosen, WGEP staff recruits expert facilitators to lead five distinct workshops.
Staff members select the 60 most engaged adolescent girls to take part in a three-day intensive leadership retreat in April. At the annual retreat, these young leaders will design service-learning projects on the issues that matter most to them. Our staff works with them to help them identify issues they want to address, and problems they want to solve in their own communities. In the past, students have identified the most pressing issues in their communities as waste management, climate change, early marriage, and gender-based violence.
Young women implement their unique service-learning projects in their communities. They implemented 27 community meetings and 9 radio programs! This is a testament to the knowledge and skills that these young women will develop through the program, and how it will enable them to become active leaders and changemakers in their male-dominated villages.
Fatou is an 18-year-old high school student in Our Sisters Lead program in Karang, Senegal. As a mentor in the program, she is using her knowledge in public speaking, conflict resolution and advocacy to inspire future leaders! She is passionate about gender equity, and even spoke on a local radio station on the consequences of violence against women and girls.
WGEP is thrilled to announce that this school year, we will be partnering with the U.S. Embassy in Senegal to create our third program, Our Sisters Lead! Emerging leaders among high school girls in Sokone will be empowered to become change agents in their own communities through a series of workshops and hands-on service projects. These inspiring young women will then become mentors and role models to young girls who face similar challenges in their everyday lives. We are so excited to see what these leaders do next!
