Sunday, April 15, 2007

How You Can Help!

As indicated in my last blog entry, I will be changing sites due to some unresolvable issues at my first job. Thus, I do not currently know what projects I will be working on at my new site. I hope to form another girls club and possible start the newspaper project at my second site but doing so will depend upon the demands of my next job. Stay tuned! When I get settled at my next site, I will be sure to update this page with detailed information about my new projects.

As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I have limited access to resources and must be creative in my project implementation. Below you will find a brief description of the major projects I am currently working on and how you can assist me with those projects (please send me your brilliant suggestions and ideas!). If you would like any more information on a project, I’d be happy to email you. Also, I will try to update this page regularly to include any new projects or changes to ongoing projects as needed so if you are inclined to offer me advice, please keep checking to see what I’m working on!

Here’s a list of some of my current projects for which I would be very grateful for any assistance you can offer. Scroll down for descriptions on each of them and suggestions on how you can support me.

Girls’ Club
Town Newspaper

Girls’ Club (last updated May 13)
The Girls’ Club is an initiative aimed at improving the lives of local teen girls by encouraging the development of self-esteem and equipping them with knowledge and skills in order for them to make enlightened social choices throughout their lives. To accomplish this, I meet with a group of about fifteen girls twice a week at the local primary school (the girls are between the ages of thirteen and sixteen). We participate in leadership games, do art and craft activities, and discuss topics such as relationships, reproductive health, self-empowerment, cross-cultural exchange, volunteerism, planning for the future and occupations, etc.

I began meeting with the girls in March and have until this point, focused solely on building trust within the group. In the beginning, the girls were extremely shy and did not even want to say their names out loud. Since English is not their first language, they feared criticism for mistakes in using the language and were not at all comfortable ‘being on the spot’ in front of their peers. While it has taken some time (and tested my patience), the girls are finally reaching a point where they feel at ease around each other and around me. So now I’m hoping to move on to bigger and better things with the group.

How You Can Help:

  • Immaterially – I could use ideas for: team-building/leadership development games, art and craft activities, and girls’ empowerment films to watch and discuss (the only two I could think of were ‘Bend it Like Beckham’ and ‘Akeelah and the Bee’).
  • Materially – If you feel inclined to mail me items to be used in the club, I could use: art and craft activities (ones related to holidays or just regular ones); English vocabulary building games (such as Scrabble, Apples to Apples); small prizes such as decks of cards, birthday party favors, stick-on tattoos, whatever (I give at least one out per meeting as incentive to come and participate); stickers! (I give the girls weekly journal assignments which I respond to and put stickers in their books)
  • Financially – Thanks to the generous support of numerous people back in the States, I no longer need any financial support for the club! So thank you to everyone who sent money in!

Town Newspaper (last updated April 14)
I submitted my proposal for a Gobabis Town Newspaper to the Ministry of Youth’s head office in Windhoek about two weeks ago and am still waiting for final approval before I begin the project. My supervisor seems to think that it is a sure-in so hopefully it will be approved sometime soon and I will get the funding required to get it started.

The idea for the newspaper came to me when I learned that in Gobabis, there is no centralized place for job postings. This is a huge problem because unemployment is staggering in Namibia so it is quite wasteful when jobs are not filled quickly. In addition to publishing job listings, the paper will also have articles on health-related issues, town events, interviews with local leaders, and regional news. The paper will be run entirely by volunteers. I plan to train the volunteers to provide them with basic interviewing and writing skills, teach them a little bit about journalism, and improve their computer skills.

How You Can Help:

  • Thanks to my mother and Jess, I no longer need anyone to mail me town newspapers from the States (I’m using them as samples).
  • What I could use help with though is planning lessons to teach the volunteer staff writers about journalism. So if you have suggestions for me, I’d much appreciate them. Or if you feel like browsing the internet or searching in a bookstore for journalism lessons, you could send me whatever information you find.

Other Projects I’m Currently Working On
Fortunately for you, I don’t currently need your help on any of these but I will let you know if I do!

  • Namibian Career Guidance Book
  • AIDS Club Visitations

2 Comments:

At 1:05 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Kate - as far as burials are concerned, in the UK the natural burials movement uses cardboard coffins or buries people in jute sacks, and in west africa there is a thriving trade in papier maché, often in amazing shapes (finned cars, cellphones etc). Wood doesn't seem like a good idea since it is a scarce resource. I'll see what I can find on this and send it to you with the parcel of stuff for the girls' club.

 
At 6:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Miss Kate,

I really have nothing to say about the dead bodies. I am kinda afraid of death myself so, I wish you the best with that. I will try to e-mail you this week wit hsome ideas of tream building and character counts ideas. I think that you would find it helpful I just need to locate where I put that info....

Love, Meghan

 

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