Last week, we began wrapping up our first video project on ‘Women and Empowerment’ at Railway Girls High School.  Danny and I were eager to include a segment featuring the students’ idea for addressing the barriers that women face.  While a few students were engaged with editing the first part of their video on Final Cut Express, the larger group of girls sat in a circle, while we asked questions about what possibilities for action existed at their school.  Many students suggested hosting a cultural show for which guests would be required to purchase tickets, whose proceeds would benefit a charity organization targeting women.  The idea was good, but it lacked the direct impact within their community (more specifically, school) that we were trying to encourage.

We continued to ask for more ideas, and then one girl suggested giving tuition classes to women living near the school.  Because of the difficulty in leaving campus during school hours, we pushed the students to think about how something similar could be implemented within their school gates.  After some more prodding, the girls suggested teaching the younger girls in elementary school at the Railway School.  This seemed like a good place to start.

After gathering these initial ideas, we introduced the topic of ‘Proposal Writing,’ as a necessary part of beginning any new project.  We explained that in writing a proposal, they would have the opportunity to more clearly lay out what they planned to do.  We asked what specific parts of their idea may meet resistance from the school administration, and then suggested that they think more carefully about these aspects of their idea before putting them down on paper.  One student immediately noted that teachers might be offended that the girls were attempting to replace their position in the classroom.  These concerns lead the girls to re-frame their idea as a mentorship, rather than teaching program.  We then asked the girls to think about the problems that they might face in mentoring young girls.  They answered that it might be difficult to work with many girls, which made them to specifically select 5^th class girls, which would neatly work out to one of them per three younger students.

After some help in organizing their ideas, the girls wrote a letter to their Headmistress, in which they detailed the specifics of the mentorship program that they hoped to create.  They asked if they could carry it out during the ‘Guiding’ period on Fridays, when no formal class is held.  They shared some example activities that they might introduce to their mentees and explained their reasons for wanting to do the project.  The School Headmistress had some valid concerns about the proposed program, namely that it would interfere with already scheduled classes, and did not give immediate approval.  We hope though to figure out a way for the girls to implement this mentorship program in some fashion before the end of the term.  Although the program that the girls envisioned may not come fully alive, the process of developing the idea for action and refining it was a valuable exercise.