before the training started, we had the chance to speak to headmaster emmanuel of the secondary school which was allowing us the space for training. for the sake of conservation, i asked him how long he'd been headmaster, how many students he had, how many went on to college, etc. this year is his 10th, there are 300 students across the 4 grades, and about 3-5 go on to college every year, he responded. emmanuel went on to disclose his school's problem: young pregnancies. this school year alone, 10/50 first year girls have dropped out due to pregnancies.
10 out of 50.
i stared at him with a dropped jaw and felt shocked, sad and mad all at the same time. i was shocked that this statistic was so large, sad that these girls would never be able to see their dreams come true, mad that they didn't make better decisions for themselves. i looked into the faces of the girls around me and couldn't help but wonder which face would soon disappear from the school due to pregnancy. "they don't value their education" he explained.
endless questions overflowed my brain's capacity: what do these girls dream of? what will it take to decrease these numbers? why does this happen? and most haunting "what should i do? what can i do?"
so i offered to talk to the girls and lead a workshop for them. on what? i have no idea. maybe on leadership, decision-making, realizing dreams.
any advice is most welcome and needed (HE).
_____________________________________
and some fun stuff:
great great weekend (:
friday night; watched jack&the beanstalk at the international school, babysat for the eggerts, watched madagascar(go africa!), and stayed up talking to kathleen until 1am - weee party animals.
saturday: zomba market and bargained (YES, me, bargaining) 3 chitenges for 1500MK, went to thomas' 5th birthday extravaganza, and a bbq/meetup across the road that was full of masters'/phd students researching for the world bank
sunday: went to church in blantyre, split a boneless chicken lunch with kathleen since my order was missed, then no longer available, played volleyball(YES, me, volleyball!) with local volunteers, went to the local hangout to watch the confederations cup final (where this malawian man kept chanting "O-BA-MA O-BA-MA")
discussing ways that fecal waste can make its way to your mouth
paying attention in training, realizing the importance of hand washing
kathleen and i found a baby boy with asian eyes to bring home (:
Your deciding not to simply say 'that sucks' and instead do something about it, despite being shocked, is what makes you one in a million!:)
ReplyDeleteA few things to get you started:
Re: dreams, there is an exercise that seems to work well: you ask each person to share their BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) with the group. Now, of course, you may have to do some translating & explaining but you get the idea. This will hopefully personalize the rest of the workshop for them by giving them the answer to WIIFM (What's In It For Me?) right away!
From there, you may get into D-M talking about how important the decisions they make will be in their ability to achieve their goals. You could ask them about some of the decisions that they think would be important and eventually focus it down sexual health/ed.
Here's some research on teen pregnancy in Malawi - interestingly enough, they actually asked youth:
http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=5722
"Fewer than three in 10 teens use any kind of contraception the first time they have sex. Malawian adolescents say they do not use condoms because they 'feel safe,' or because they simply do not have one.
They may also not know quite enough about how to use one: Only about a quarter of young men and just 14% of young women have attended sex education classes."
That may give you a sense of where to focus the educational part of the workshop. Opinions on promoting abstinence as a method of prevention are mixed: some say it's the only no-fail method; others say they'll do it anyway so it won't help.
Emphasizing the reality of condom effectiveness will be key to avoid a false sense of invincibility when they do use one. Here are the stats from Planned Parenthood:
Each year, 2 out of 100 women whose partners use condoms will become pregnant if they always use condoms correctly.
Each year, 15 out of 100 women whose partners use condoms will become pregnant if they don't always use condoms correctly.
That research about the kids not knowing how and the big gap in effectiveness may warrant your even showing them how to use a condom! Now, of course, you have a much better sense of the school and whether the Headmaster would be OK with something like that. On what?? water bottle could work! haha.
Hopefully, that helps a little bit - as you work to put it together, feel free to nudge!:D
You better teach me some serious hagglin' skillz when you get back!
-H.
Hey Kristina,
ReplyDeleteI love the initiative to lead a workshop!! That is how great leaders rise to the challenge--just seeing a need, saying that you are going to do something about it, and then just doing it. I'm sure that everything will come together for the workshop.
I would recommend doing the workshop with a Malawian that knows the culture and can supplement the presentation with what the cultural expectations are of Malawians. Also, I'm sure that they would like to hear about your personal goals of coming to Malawi and why you did it. The participants might want to come to Canada someday and teach us a few things.
Keep me posted on how it works out.
Peace,
Nick
hamoon: love the BHAG idea :D this is what breaks my heart the most: that the BHAGs these girls had may never be realized =(
ReplyDeletei want to make this "workshop" very interactive and focus on learning from the students as opposed to focusing on teaching. there are countless cultural factors that i am not aware of and i want to learn how and why this happens before i focus on what i can do.
thank you so SO much for all the info and the advice :D ha. water bottle. so innovative.
nick: this stat breaks my heart and there's no way i can continue to let this happen. great advice! i talked to a malawian pastor today and asked him what i should tell the students. he told me to tell them that pregnancy is not a way out of poverty. some girls believe that when they get pregnant their boyfriends will provide for them. peer pressure is a large problem and some girls see how "happy" families are and want that happiness.
i definitely have some work cut out for me, and this is a great challenge.
thanks so much boys for the support and great advice (: muchos appreciated. i shall keep you posted.
Yo you only have 3 posts on water.
ReplyDelete=shawn=
yo. thats because i'm not working with the water team =( i just tag along to see their projects.
ReplyDeleteBUT i shall post more water stuff for you.
hi teena,
ReplyDeletegood to read about your day to day challenges in malawi - sanitation, water, teen pregs, all that stuff. we know that you are up to these, head on. your leadership and your team effort would surely bring greater experience.
May you always be healthy and protected in the loving arms of God. keep looking up to Him!
tita len