By Hindaty Traore, Girls Project Manager

Sitan is a very dynamic, motivated and determined young girl. She is 16 years old and is in 9th grade at Frances W. Burton Middle School. She comes from a very large farming family. She wants to do everything she can to lift her parents out of poverty. She wants to succeed but not alone.

This is why during our visit of the month to Tamala, Sitan offered us to advise her comrades finally that they be motivated from the beginning of the year to fight again this year so that they succeed all together. She thinks some girls still need a little encouragement to succeed especially those who have just arrived newly in Grade 7. Let us listen to her advice:

Hello sisters. Did you know that today's girls are the future of tomorrow's women, which is why it is essential that they are educated and learn to enforce their rights? I want us to  develop this beautiful village  of Tamala, which is for us and for our  ancestors. No one will come to build this village for us. The best weapon to develop our village is education -- especially for girls.”

Girls' education is the precursor to lasting change. An educated girl can take charge of her life. Sensitized to the importance of education, she ensures that her children have a quality education and thus fights in turn against discrimination against girls, such as forced marriage, early pregnancy, child labor, and dropping out of  school.

A girl who does not go to school will have a harder time making her voice heard. She will not be able to participate actively in the decision-making of the society in which she lives. The non-enrollment of girls locks them into poverty. Moreover, this situation is likely to continue in the next generation because an out-of-school girl will not understand the value of giving her children a quality education.

Education has brought me a lot. It taught me how to write my name, to know my family's phone numbers. Education is important because educating a girl is educating a family, a community, a village and an entire nation. Education allows you to know good manners in society, to have a lot of knowledge and you can have a job that you want to do but if you are not educated you will have nothing in life.

I learned a lot of things from the Girls’ Project  like the menstrual cycle and period because I had not yet had my period.. I had advice to succeed, and I knew the existence of some languages in the world that I did not know. So I ask you my sisters to listen well to Hindaty, because she is there to help us succeed.

After my studies, I want to be a great seamstress to have money, sew clothes for me, my husband and Hindaty too. I hope you have understood my advice and  my dream.  I beg your pardon if I have offended you. Thank you."

After Sitan's intervention with the younger girls, we noticed the positive influence of the girls. This is why we will never stop thanking all the people who support the Girls' Project because thanks to them girls are able to express themselves in front of others, to study, to be bold, to have a specific goal in life.