English Discussion @ GMC
09 Mar 2009 Leave a Comment
On Friday, March 6th we had an English discussion (which eventually became an Arabic/English discussion) on women and International Women’s Day with the lycée girls and several girls from the collège English club. We had the two lycée girls who won the English competition present their essays. The essays were about the importance/role of women in society. Aminetou (our English teacher) and Mohamed, an English teacher at the lycée who facilitated the discussion.
I was a little nervous about having the discussion since it’s a new concept and it was suppose to be in English. Besides the slow start in the beginning, the discussion went really well. We were able to have a really good discussion about different issues concerning women. We also had a short discussion on education for girls and boys in Mauritania. The discussion really pushed the girls to think/analyze the issues prevalent in their lives.
Most of the girls here tend to have an optimistic outlook on their future. While it’s a nice outlook on life, they fail to think about the obstacles that might prevent them from achieving their goals. So you have to break it down in order for them to see the obstacles and problems. It was amazing to hear them analyze their situations once it was broken down. One thing that I would like to achieve with the girls is “empower” them to take ACTION! I want them to see that they can create change.
