Girls Homework Help and Peer to Peer Tutoring

Many girls return to their homes after school to do household chores, which does not leave a lot of time for homework or review. Also due to the school structure in Togo, many students have a hard time keeping up with curriculum or doing work assigned for home. A group that gets together during free period or after school that works on homework assignments and difficult concepts in a group is a great way to help girls keep on top of their studies.

Introduction

If what you want to do in village is create a club for girls to tutor one other, then this project can help you put together and implement a club.

Steps

There are certain things that need to be planned and considered in order to have a girl’s homework and tutoring club. Use the below mentioned steps to make sure that your club is a success.

• Who should you contact in village to help you initiate this project? Having a counterpart in village who feels strongly about your club, and is willing to partner with you to help implement it is important.
  • Possible Partner Suggestions:
    • Primary Homologue
    • Teacher
• Choose the location of your club, picking a place that suites the specific needs of your club is important. Perhaps the school can give up a room for you to hold your club in.
• Get the support of important members in the community for your club. You may need the permission of the school if you plan to have a club on school property, which means talking with your director and getting his/her “blessing” to have the club and use the school as a location.
• Pick a date and time for your club. Whether you decide to meet monthly or weekly make sure you have a consistent date set. Also consider how busy your possible participants will be with house work, pick a day when they only have morning classes if you can. Make sure that your intended audience is actually available to attend your club.

Once you have tackled the above steps you are ready to start.

Content

Homework clubs should work on a peer to peer level, have the girls decide the subjects they do well in and put them in charge of that tutoring session. In this way the girls can play to their strengths and offer help as well as have others in the group that can help them with their other subjects. A girl great at physics can help a girl who struggles with it, at the same time, that girl who is struggling in physics may be excellent at geography. She can use her expertise to help a girl weak in that subject.

What you do not want to do is end up doing all the tutoring or work for the girls, also making sure that your counterpart also takes a more hands-off approach to the club will make sure the girls are using each other as resources. However if everyone gets stuck, it is more than fine for you or your counterpart to step in and help out.

Monitoring and Evaluation

This is a critical step in a project and something that should be considered a part of every project large or small.

For a homework club, make sure to send around a sign in sheet that takes down the name and ages of all the participants, this info is crucial for volunteer reporting.

Seeing an improvement in your club member’s grade is really the best kind of evaluation of your clubs effectiveness.

Girls Leadership Club

Culture considerations don’t leave a lot of room for women to assume leadership roles. Clubs that teach girls leadership skills, communication, and self-confidence can help girls in their future endeavors. Leadership clubs can also teach girls to be more ambitious and to pursue their life goals.

Introduction

If what you want to do in village is create a club for girls and leadership, then this project can help you put together and implement a club.

Steps

There are certain things that need to be planned and considered in order to have a girl’s leadership club. Use the below mentioned steps to make sure that your club is a success.

• Who should you contact in village to help you initiate this project? Having a counterpart in village who feels strongly about your club and female leadership, and is willing to partner with you to help implement it is important.
  • Possible Partner Suggestions:
  • Primary Homologue
  • Affaire Social (social worker)
  • Teacher
  • Dynamic woman in village
• Choose the location of your event, picking a place that suites the specific needs of your club is important.
• Get the support of important members in the community for your club. You may need the permission of the school if you plan to have a club on school property, which means talking with your director and getting his/her “blessing” to have the club and use the school as a location.
• Pick a date and time for your club. Whether you decide to meet monthly or weekly make sure you have a consistent date set. Also consider how busy your possible participants will be with school work and house work, pick a day when they only have morning classes if you can. Make sure that your intended audience is actually available to attend your club.

Once you have tackled the above steps you are ready to start.

Content

A leadership club is about teaching girls the skills they need to succeed and to have confidence in themselves. There really isn’t an exact curriculum for a club like this. A leadership club should consider what you believe makes a good leader, therefore the possible topics mentioned below are just suggestions.
Possible topics that should be discussed:

• Positive Attitude
• Self Confidence
• Being Persuasive
• The Importance of Planning

Activities

A good self-confidence session asks girls to write out something that they like about themselves. It is a very simple activity that gets the girls to think about positive attributes within themselves.

• Having girls pick goals, and then plan them out is a great way to get them to think about their futures. Small goals like a score they would like to receive on an exam, an item they would like to own, or a job that they would like to finish. Teach them how to break down tasks and goals into step by step activities, by using action plans.
• Eloquence can be seen as an important skill in a leader, having the girls give public speeches to their fellow club mates is a great way to build up the skill. You can even take it to the next level and have them pick sides in a discussion and have a healthy debate. Public speaking is a great confidence builder as well.
• Having important or well off women in the community come and talk with the girls is a good idea for a session. Setting it up panel style so that the girls can ask questions about what the women does and what she had to do to get to her current position. Role models and successful women are really very useful for girls.
• This is a very simple activity that can be conducted in your club. Make a handout that contains qualities and general statements that convey the qualities of a true leader. For example: “I always take responsibility for my failures and try and learn from every failure”. Distribute these handouts to the participants and make them stand at a common start line. Now, read the first sentence aloud and ask all the participants to judge for themselves whether that sentence holds true for them, and if it does, they can move one step ahead. While taking that step ask participants to narrate or illustrate a short example to support their assertion. Continue the activity until you have a winner of the race.

Monitoring and Evaluation

This is a critical step in a project and something that should be considered a part of every project large or small.

For a leadership club, make sure to send around a sign in sheet that takes down the name and ages of all the participants, this info is crucial for volunteer reporting.

A simple survey weekly or monthly survey that asks questions that pertain to the content of the session is an easy way to make sure that your participants are retaining information.

Other Resources
Leadership activity ideas

Sexual Reproductive Health for CEG (Middle School) Girls

Reproductive health is an official subject in the Togolese education system. However it often times gets overlooked or rushed at the end of the year due to exams. As a result for many young CEG girls, the basic knowledge about their changing bodies is left as mystery, Girls in CEG or “middle school” need to be taught the basics of reproductive health in order to better understand their bodies, and know how to combat harmful myths.

 Introduction

If what you want to do in village is educate girls on the basics of reproductive health, then this project can help you put together and implement a club or class.

Steps

There are certain things that need to be planned and considered in order to hold a sexual reproductive health class/club. Use the below mentioned steps to make sure that your class/club is a success.

• Who should you contact in village to help you initiate this project? Having a counterpart in village who feels strongly about your idea, and is willing to partner with you to help implement it is important. (Because this activity deals with sensitive or even embarrassing issues, a female counterpart is an asset. Young girls will feel more comfortable discussing their bodies with a female counterpart.
• Possible Partner Suggestions:
  • Primary Homologue
  • Hospital Staff
  • Affaire Social Staff (equivalent to a social worker)
  • Teacher
• Choose the location of your event, picking a place that suites the specific needs of your class or club is important. The best location for either class or club will be the school, the students will already be familiar with the location.
• Get the support of important members in the community for your club or class. Depending on the village, reproductive health can be a controversial topic, so make sure to find time to speak with your chief, Imam, priest, or hospital staff so that they can “bless” your club or class. More importantly you need the permission of the school, which means talking with your director and getting his/her “blessing” to have the class or club and use the school as a location.
• Pick a date and time for your club or class. If you decide to make it a class versus a club, you will have to work with the school to find scheduled time weekly for your lesson. Making it a class also kind of makes it mandatory for students to attend. If you do a club instead you will need to pick a regular meeting time, whether weekly or monthly. Also consider how busy your possible participants will be with school work and house work, pick a day when they only have morning classes if you can. Make sure that your intended audience is actually available to attend your club/class.

 

Once you have tackled the above steps you are ready to start.

 

Content

Make sure that any content you teach in your class has been cleared with your schools director to keep yourself from getting into any controversies.

Possible topics that should be discussed:

• The steps and signs of puberty
• How girls regulatory cycle works
• The anatomy of the vagina
• Common myths and misconceptions about puberty
• Common myths and misconceptions about sex
• The consequences of early pregnancy
• Safe-sex practices
• STIs and HIV/AIDS

*The above topics should be mostly covered in your CHAMP toolkit. Combine or separate the above sessions, gloss over them or go in to intimate detail, cover what your participants want to know. Hold copious amounts of Q&A’s after each session. Create a safe place to say what they want, the more open and trusting the atmosphere you create for the subject, the better it will go.

Having a homologue around for this project is very useful, however if your chosen homologue is not an expert in the subject of reproductive health, it can be helpful from time to time, to call on a health professional to come and elaborate on technical topics as they come up. You don’t want to give your participants poor or incorrect information.

 

Activities:

• When discussing the anatomy of the vagina and women’s regulatory cycle have images to show them, simple diagrams and images are endlessly useful. Find some online to print out or draw them yourself.
• Create a comment and questions box, encourage the participants to ask questions any questions. Let them know that they can write out embarrassing or controversial questions and put them in the box anonymously. During the following session read and answer the questions
• Use the True or False Brise-Glace to open up a discussion about common misconception and myths about sex or puberty. Have two signs made, one that says true, and one that says false. Place them on opposite sides of the room and have the participants stand in the center. Read each myth and let them choose whether the myth is true or false by walking to one of the two sides. Ask a person on each side to defend their choice and state why a myth is true or false.
• HIV/AIDS discussions are very important, however more important than simply discussing the transmission of the disease is to discuss how to prevent it, and also how those who have the disease should be treated. Ask the participants to discuss what they would do if a stranger or distant acquaintance in village contracted HIV, then ask them what they would do if an immediate family member contracted HIV, finally ask them how they would want others to treat them if they contracted HIV.

Monitoring and Evaluation

This is a critical step in a project and something that should be considered a part of every project large or small.

For a sexual reproductive health club/class, make sure to send around a sign in sheet that takes down the name and ages of all the participants, this info is crucial for volunteer reporting.

A simple survey weekly or monthly survey that asks questions that pertain to the content of the session is an easy way to make sure that your participants are retaining information.

 

Other Resources

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001159/115968e.pdf – Comprehensive Information on Teaching Reproductive Health

http://health.allrefer.com/health/vagina-female-reproductive-anatomy-1.html – Images of female reproductive anatomy

Men as Partners: Family Planning

Women are only half of the equation when it comes to family planning in Togo. To enact real change and truly give women the ability to limit the number of children they have, involving their husbands is crucial. Culturally it is the husband who is the head of the household, and it is the husband who decides important family decisions, such as the number of children.

Holding a health that targets men is important for increasing the use of family planning methods in a village.

Introduction

If what you want to do in village is improve the usage of family planning in your village, then this project can help you specifically with getting the male population on board.

Steps

There are certain things that need to be planned and considered in order to hold a MAP health talk on family planning. Use the below mentioned steps to make sure that your event is a success.

• Who should you contact in village to help you initiate this project? Having a counterpart in village who feels strongly about your causerie, and is willing to partner with you to help implement it is important. (Because this activity is MAP having a male homologue partnership could prove to be more useful than, a female)
• Possible Partner Suggestions:
  • Primary Homologue
  • Hospital Staff
  • Affaire Social Staff (equivalent to a social worker)
  • Teacher
• Choose the location of your event, picking a place that suites the specific needs of your health talk are important. If the talk is for a small group pick a smaller more intimate location, if it is a massive sensibilization, pick a place that a lot people can and will gather.
• Get the support of important members in the community for your health talk. Depending on the village, family planning can be a controversial topic, so make sure to find time to speak with your chief, Imam, priest, or hospital staff so that they can “bless” your health talk, and possibly help spread the word around for maximum attendance.
• Pick a date and time for the health talk, consider whether it’s wet or dry season, when people in village are the most active. Making sure that your possible audience is actually available to attend your health talk. Be careful of the chosen date during rainy season, men work in the fields then all day. The same goes for whatever major religion or practices that may occur in your village, don’t schedule events during religious services.

Once you have tackled the above steps you are ready to put on a health talk.

Content

Brise-Glace: Agree or Disagree

Always start a health talk with an engaging activity or mini game. For a MAP health talk on family planning, the Brsie-Glace: Agree or Disagree is a great way to introduce the topic.
Rules: Have two sheets of paper with the words agree (d‘accord) or disagree (pas d’accord) written on them. Hang the two sheets on opposite sides of the room.

Have the assembled group stand in the center of the room while you read out a statement, then tell them to stand under either the agree sign or disagree sign, based on what they believe is the correct response. After everyone has chosen a side, ask for a volunteer for each side to explain their reasoning. (Technically there are no right or wrong answers, this should not be the point where you explain your own reasoning, be impartial.)

When the discussion is over and both sides have made their arguments move on to the next question.

List of Statements:

• Women should be in control of their own bodies (Les femmes devraient être en contrôle de leur propre corps)
• Having a lot of children is important for family success (Beaucoup d’enfants est important pour la réussite familiale)
• Contraceptives can be dangerous to women (Contraceptifs peut être dangereuse pour les femmes)
• God decides how many children we will have (Dieu décide combien d’enfants nous aurons)
• Men make all the decisions for their households (Hommes prennent toutes les décisions pour leurs ménages)
• One child is not enough (Un enfant n’est pas suffisant)
• Ten children are too many (Dix enfants sont trop nombreux)
• Men who ask their wives opinion when making decisions are weak (Les hommes qui demandent à leurs épouses avis lorsque des décisions sont faibles)
• Condoms are for promiscuous people (Préservatifs sont pour les gens de promiscuité)
• It is the right of men to have more than one wife. (C’est le droit de l’homme d’avoir plus d’une femme)

After the Brise-Glace begin discussing the benefits of family planning with the men. (Because this is MAP, the benefits need to be male focused and not focused on any perceived rights of women.) Such as:

• Less children means more money for the family
  • More likely to be able to send children to school
  • Less children that may need hospital attention
  • Extra money can be used in AGR or saved for emergencies
  • Fewer mouths to feed
• Fewer children reduces the risk of death or complications in the wife
• Smaller families take up less space
• Large families can lead to neglected children
• Using contraceptives allows for consequence free (child free) sex
• There are many temporary type of contraceptives for creating a break in between children that will not keep the family from having children in the future

After discussing the benefits of family planning, spend the rest of the health talk discussing the actual types of contraceptives available.

• IUDs
• Injectables like Depo
• Pills
• Condoms
• Implants

*If possible this portion of the session can be handled by a knowledgeable health worker such as a nurse, birth attendant, or mid-wife. If not available consult your CHAMP toolkit for birth control method descriptions.

Don’t forget to mention costs, if you can find them, the length of time different birth control methods offer, and that condoms also protect against HIV/AIDS. Finally challenge the men to visit their local clinic and hospital to get more information.

Monitoring and Evaluation

This is a critical step in a project and something that should be considered a part of every project large or small.

For a family planning health talk, make sure to send around a sign in sheet that takes down the name and ages of all the participants, this info is crucial for volunteer reporting.

A simple survey that asks how well informed the participants are about family planning and how positively they view the concept before and after your health talk is a great way to gauge the effect of your discussion.

Other Resources

http://health.allrefer.com/health/vagina-female-reproductive-anatomy-1.html – images of vagina
http://www.life123.com/health/womens-health/contraception/understanding-the-contraception-methods-available-.shtml – Description of contraceptive methods

Men as Partners: Distribution of Land and Land Ownership

A Gender and Development Project in a Box: Men as Partners: Distribution of Labor & Land Ownership

There is also the concern of the work that women do not only in the home, but also in the fields, and how that labor should be divided to make things more equitable

A MAP causerie that asks men to think critically about these issues could help open the door to a more equitable relationship in the fields and household

Introduction

If what you want to do in village is improve the equitability in labor and land rights , then this project can help you specifically with getting the male population on board.

Steps

There are certain things that need to be planned and considered in order to hold a MAP health talk on family planning. Use the below mentioned steps to make sure that your event is a success.

• Who should you contact in village to help you initiate this project? Having a counterpart in village who feels strongly about your causerie, and is willing to partner with you to help implement it is important. (Because this activity is MAP having a male homologue partnership could prove to be more useful than, a female)
  • Possible Partner Suggestions:
  • Primary Homologue
  • Motivated Farmer
  • Affaires Social Staff (equivalent to a social worker)
  • Teacher
  • CVD
  • I-Cat worker
• Choose the location of your event, picking a place that suites the specific needs of your MAP talk are important. If the talk is for a small group pick a smaller more intimate location, if it is a massive sensibilization, pick a place that a lot people can and will gather.
• Get the support of important members in the community for your MAP causerie. Make sure to find time to speak with your chief, Imam, priest, or CVD so that they can “bless” your causerie, and possibly help spread the word around for maximum attendance.
• Pick a date and time for the causerie, consider whether it’s wet or dry season, when people in village are the most active. Making sure that your possible audience is actually available to attend your causerie. Be careful of the chosen date during rainy season, men work in the fields then all day. The same goes for whatever major religion or practices that may occur in your village, don’t schedule events during religious services.

Once you have tackled the above steps you are ready to put on a health talk.

Content

Brise-Glace: Agree or Disagree

Always start a causerie with an engaging activity or mini game. For a Map talk on the division of labor & land ownership, the Brsie-Glace: Agree or Disagree is a great way to introduce the topic.
Rules: Have two sheets of paper with the words agree (d‘accord) or disagree (pas d’accord) written on them. Hang the two sheets on opposite sides of the room.

Have the assembled group stand in the center of the room while you read out a statement, then tell them to stand under either the agree sign or disagree sign, based on what they believe is the correct response. After everyone has chosen a side, ask for a volunteer for each side to explain their reasoning. (Technically there are no right or wrong answers, this should not be the point where you explain your own reasoning, be impartial.)

When the discussion is over and both sides have made their arguments move on to the next question.

List of Statements:

• Men make all the decisions for their households (Hommes prennent toutes les décisions pour leurs ménages)
• Men who ask their wives opinion when making decisions are weak (Les hommes qui demandent à leurs épouses avis lorsque des décisions sont faibles)
• Men work harder than women (Les hommes travaillent plus dur que les femmes)
• Taking care of children is woman’s work (S’Occupier des enfant est le travail de la femme)
• Men cannot cook (Hommes ne peuvent pas cuisiner)
• Only men should be farmers ( Seuls les homes devraient être des agriculteurs)
• Women are bad at managing money (Les femmes sont mauvaises dans la gestion de l’argent)
• Only sons can inherit property (Seuls les fils peuvent hériter des biens)
• The work of women is easy (Le travail des femmes est facile)

After the Brise-Glace begin discussing the issues of division of labor and land ownership.

• Discuss the cultural factor that determines what activities are for men and which are for women
• Have them list male versus female activities
• Have them think about how they spend their day versus how women do
• Ask them to imagine life as the opposite gender
  *Then have them make a day/week schedule that outlines what a women typically uses her time doing. Then have them create the same schedule for themselves
• Have them look at their schedules and ask them to evaluate them and consider them.
• Discuss activities that show up on the chart and what they mean work wise.
• Discuss how willing the men would be to trade tasks or do extra work.
• Discuss why land ownership is mostly for men
  • Have them list the positives and negatives of the current situation
  • Ask them if they would be willing to leave property to their daughters if that was all they had
  • Suggest that there are possible benefits to giving land to their wives, land that the wives can manage themselves
• Have a discussion about partnership in marriage
  This is a causerie where having male homologues to help lead the sessions is important. However a female voice or to might help highlight the female perspective.
  The point of a discussion like this one is to get the men thinking about the broader issue, do not expect people to radically change their position on these issues. Just putting the thought into their heads is productive.

Monitoring and Evaluation

This is a critical step in a project and something that should be considered a part of every project large or small.
For a Men as Partners causerie, make sure to send around a sign in sheet that takes down the name and ages of all the participants, this info is crucial for volunteer reporting.

Other Resources
http://files.peacecorps.gov/multimedia/pdf/library/M0086_PACA_Idea.pdf – Great information on how to do a daily activities list. Use it to make your weekly task planners.