Summer Program Volunteer Report (2009)

2009-07-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

I never dreamed my African adventure would begin with a wedding. Yassin and David SarrFox and their 2 year old Mam-Mary met me at the airport and whisked me off to a wild wedding celebration. Beautiful women in spectacular, fashionable dress were dancing to exciting loud music. There was lots of food, but no bride or groom! They were both in England. This introduced me to one wonderful aspect of Gambian life –any excuse for a party!

I came prepared to teach English to Gambian young women. The actual program turned out to be much bigger than that. We were four teachers with a fifth to join us, dealing with one hundred and ten eager, excited Gambian young women between the ages of fifteen and nineteen.

Our fearless leader Mam-Yassin SarrFox had interviewed the young women and held an orientation for them and their mothers. The younger women will take a national exam next year that will basically determine their futures. Based on their results they will either continue in school or be married off. You can see how precious our time was and how keenly we felt our responsibilities.

The context we used to increase their English skills and vocabulary centered around each girl choosing a goal for her future. We would have seventy hours to love, encourage, inspire and teach our young women.

We began promptly at 3:30 every Monday through Thursday, we continued until 6:30. To demonstrate the importance of punctuality, we sent home several young women who were late the first and second day. After that all 110 young women were early. The first day, each young woman was given a small metal starfish as a symbol of her new identity as a Starfish International Girl. (Our sponsoring agency is Starfish International, the web site is www.starfishinternational.org. The five qualities of a Starfish young woman were introduced, memorized, and then recited at the beginning of each day. They are nobility, independence, knowledge, service and courtesy.

Please enjoy the pictures of the young women on our website. You’ll see that we are in circles at St. Peter’s Technical Senior High School. We’re under the trees which protect us from the heat. There is usually a breeze keeping us refreshed.

We used games, guest speakers, poetry, visual aids, exposure to a variety of occupations, stories and conversations to inspire and teach each of our young women. We’ve seen them go from having no concrete goals or plans to setting achievable goals for themselves. We’ve seen them go from shy hesitant whisperers to confident public speakers.

Goals of Starfish International

The first aim of Starfish International is that the young women move their level of perspective when it comes to goal setting from a “pie in the sky” attitude to a concrete understanding of what it will take to reach their goal.

Once they understand all that is involved in goal setting, then they can better decide how they can achieve a particular goal. They are better equipped to face and overcome the obstacles involved in achieving their life goals and also better equipped to make adjustments as needed. A Starfish girl who wants to become a doctor should know how many years of study it will require, how much it will cost, how their personality traits fit into their profession and which community will best be served by the branch of medicine she chooses.

The second aim is to inspire the young Starfish women to broaden their vision of themselves and their place in the world. Our hope is that by the end of the program they can get beyond thinking about ways to just benefit themselves and their immediate families and instead include their particular contributions of service to humanity. For example, we want them to consider questions such as “What are the needs in my neighborhood and how does my approach toward addressing those needs add to the betterment of the world?”

The third aim is that our young Starfish women see themselves as self-reliant individuals no matter what background they come from or what life circumstances they find themselves in, in the future. Be they the president’s wife or a widow, both Starfish women would have the same self concept that they can and will take care of themselves financially and make their individual contributions to the world.

The fourth aim is that the Starish program provides a learning environment within which the young women learn to be their own best advocates. For example, a Starfish young woman should be confident enough to articulate her experiences, her needs, her successes and her place in the world.

Finally, we hope our volunteers and young women through their shared experiences will be models of the power of the oneness of humanity and the power of service.

Summer Program Volunteers

2009-04-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

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Gratitude

2009-04-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

I am overwhelmed by all the support we continue to receive at Starfish. To see a dream I’ve had since I was 8 years old begin to come to fruition is in itself humbling. However, to see so many others buy into the dream and go out of their way to see it through is pretty cool.

Since the launching of our scholarship program, I have been excited to see how on earth we will raise the funds to sponsor 150 girls. One of the most amazing surprises I’ve had is the number of people who have called to find out just how many girls we want to sponsor and when I have sheepishly answered “150?”, they each said, “oh, we can do that. It’s a lot but we can definitely do it. I can sponsor one, and I can also get three or four of my friends to sponsor a girl as well.”

All this has made me realize just how awesome a journey this is going to be and how lucky I am to be right here, right now, doing this with y’all. Let’s amaze ourselves and the world, defy the odds and make miracles!

Starfish International Blog

Summer Program Volunteer Report (2009)

Summer Program Volunteers

Gratitude