CIPFEM

Ok, so I finally got some time to put up this very important posting which I have been meaning to do for a long time. Plus, Chris just put his pictures up on facebook so I could steal them since he really is a very excellent photographer.

This semester I took a class called 'Gender and Development' in which we learned about and discussed the plight of women in Sub-Saharan Africa. The focus is to raise awareness about the difference women and men have in terms of access to resources such as education, land and/or property, financial resources, political representation ect. Besides lack of access, women are disproportionately affected by things such as violence, environmental degradation, and globalization.

The UNU-WIDER and World Bank Policy research links on the upper right side of the page discuss how gender equality effects development- those interested in economics will find the UNU-WIDER article particularly insightful.

A requisite of this class was to participate in an NGO called CIPFEM which was put together by last year's students. Below is a description of of the organization.

(From the CIEE website) CIPFEM: Centre International pour la Promotion du Leadership Féminin (International Center for the Promotion of Female Leadership). CIPFEM targets girls aged 9-14, who constitute the demographic most prone to dropping out of school. The vision of this program is that every woman in Senegal will have the resources and support needed to pursue her education. Thus, the next generation of women will be empowered to improve their status.

Here is a link to the CIPFEM website: http://www.cipfem.org/index.html Please visit it and don't be bashful in donating a few bucks...

This year's Gender and Development class had the task of creating a curriculum, setting up fundraising, and tutoring. I personally tutored on three different occasions and helped to put together a packet of activities for the future students. Here we are below having fun and tutoring...

Stephen, Saren, and Jessie getting ready to begin the lesson.

French class, but I don't see the Tubabs taking notes...
Dan provides an exciting geography lesson- this was a hit.
Shelby, a natural teacher.
Some impressive jump rope acrobatics.