When St. Katharine’s School gave us permission to spend time with our five African Girls Can students, we wanted to make sure to use the opportunity wisely. What could we do with them for two hours that would be a good learning experience, as well as fun and memorable?
We decided to talk with them about Hopes and Dreams and having a positive outlook for the future. We started by showing them a short video from The Hope Project. They watched as a African youth shared a variety of dream careers: this included everything from civil engineer to biochemist to accountant.
With credit and gratitude to another very successful Girls’ Education organization that we emulate, AfricAid*, we led the girls through an exercise of creating their own “Dream Tree.” AfricAid uses this lesson in the Motivation & Personal Leadership unit of their Binti Shupavu curriculum, which is designed to help O Level girls stay in school. It seemed like a perfect match for our girls – and it was, they loved it!
The purpose of the Dream Tree activity is to:
- Recognize the importance of having a dream or something to strive for.
- Understand the obstacles to dreams, as well as the ways to overcome these hurdles.
- Develop individual steps needed to reach a specific dream. You can’t expect instant results… you need a strong foundation and a plan.
We started by discussing “Goal Busters,” or things that get in the way of reaching a goal. The girls came up with many ideas including:
- Hanging out with the wrong crowd.
- Procrastination (Patricia looked that word up in the dictionary and read aloud to the group).
- Not having a vision or plan.
- Fear of change or failure.
- Negative language and thinking. (Listening to and believing people who say: “You can’t do that because…”)
Then, we talked about “Goal Getters,” which are things that make a goal more achievable. The girls really took off here and listed:
- Getting an education.
- Having a plan.
- Good time management.
- Being active in class.
- Consulting teachers for help.
- Working hard.
- Good peer groups.
- Positive thinking.
The Dream Tree is a graphic representation of one’s dream. The girls each started their own individual tree, caught on quickly and got fairly well along in the process, with the understanding that they could continue to add to it. It is nice to think of the trees hanging on the wall of their dorm or at home where they might be reminded of them regularly.
- Start by planting a seed. The seed is your dream, what you would like to do or be when you get older.
- The seed grows roots. The roots are the things you need to know or have in order to grow your dream.
- The trunk of the tree is the steps toward achieving your dream.
- The crown of the tree (and its fruits and flowers) is the way you will feel and what your life will be like once you achieve your dream. These are material things (having a house and access to health care, helping my family and community) and emotional things (pride!).
The experience was also a lesson in flexibility for the leaders. We shopped for the supplies in Kampala and could not find brown paper (for the tree trunk), even at the best book and paper supply store in the city. The girls ended up using brown colored pencils and crayons and they worked out just fine. Go with the flow when in Africa!
We will always remember our time together with the AGC girls discussing dreams and making Dream Trees!
