Each year, when the students are on their long break from school (Dec-Jan), African Girls Can organizes an overnight get together for all current and past program participants. The gathering has several purposes:
- Team building and focus on healthy bodies through exercises and games.
- Individual goal setting and sharing challenges by meeting with mentors.
- Inspiration and motivation by hearing role models.
- Improving communication skills through presentations to the group.
- Sharing information with parents so they will be engaged in their daughters’ future. (The retreat always concludes with a parent meeting.)
- Fun! Movies, music, and meals!
The girls experienced the calming benefits of a yoga practice for the first time at a Retreat. | |
Sports are always incorporated into African Girls Can gatherings. | |
An empathetic listening ear...younger girls are paired with older ones who have overcome some of the same obstacles to their education. A girl is much more likely to open up about her challenges and fears to someone she can relate to. | |
Role play and skits are a great way for the girls to demonstrate their understanding of the importance of education, setting goals for the future, and avoiding traps that keep them from reaching their goals. | |
AGC Co-Founder, Phoebe Mulinde, spends time with each pair of girls. Here, Linda (left), who is about to enter her sixth and final year of secondary school, talks to Babra, a young woman who also completed Advanced Level and is now in a program at a hospital in Kampala to become a Laboratory Technician. | |
Parent engagement is a critical part of girls education. Parents are part of a 3 legged stool (the other two legs being the girl herself and her teachers) that keeps a girl on a path to independence. To demonstrate their commitment to their daughter's education, families pay 20% of the tuition. They stay vigilant about their daughter's safety while they are home from school when the risk of early marriage and pregnancy is much higher. |