By Hindaty Traore, Girls Project Coordinator
Halimatou jumps for joy when she imagines turning her education into a future as a doctor.
During our twice-monthly Girls Groups meetings, we work with our girls to develop skills they need to thrive in school and in life. A common theme is the power of education to help girls achieve their dreams. In November, I led the girls in an reflection exercise, focused on making girls aware of the disadvantages of not going to school, and the benefits of their education.
This exercise involves imagining something by closing your eyes. So to do it, we asked the girls to close their eyes for 5 minutes to imagine their lives in two ways that are:
1. If they had not gone to school, what would they become?
2. Now that they are in school, what would be their life in the future?
The girls were all unanimous on their answers to the first question. They think that if they had not been to school they would be married, they would have children, they would be in the field or would have been in the big cities as a housekeeper, their life would be a real hell.
On the other hand, their reactions to their futures with school were quite different! Here is the reaction of 19-year-old Halimatou , who is attending the 8th grade of Sebela's Tim Gibson Middle School. When she closed her eyes, she jumped for joy. When we asked why, she said she saw herself in the future as a great doctor!
We then asked, why a doctor? She said that she saw herself treating patients, that she saw many cases of malaria in their village especially during the winter, she saw the presence of mosquitoes in the rivers, the presence of sewage and greenery that mosquitoes like. In the same dream, she saw that she built health centers, beautiful houses for her parents and even schools for the education of all the children of the village, she also bought beautiful clothes and she was became very rich thanks to education. That's what made her smile when she had her eyes closed.
While in her dream where she had not gone to school, she saw that her life was a nightmare because she would be married and have many children, she would see herself in the kitchen preparing the meal for the family, and she will have no choice but to be a farmer like her parents.
In reality knowing that she goes to school Halimatou thinks that thanks to her education she can read and write her messages, her ordinances, and many other things. She is aware that she was lucky enough to be at school, that she did not make a mistake because she thinks she is on the right road to making a good life.
