Yei Resource Centre attracts more girls now

MS Uganda supports Yei Ressource Centre in Southern Sudan. The centre provides reading material and an environment for the youth to interact. Particular activities for girls have been initiated lately with success – and with new challenges which the centre is trying to overcome.

Girls playing netball at the Yei Resource Centre

It is late afternoon and not too hot. Laughs and happy cheering fill the air. The compound of Yei Resouce Centre is full of life. Boys but mostly girls play netball or volleyball, and a mixed group of youth is standing around. They have just finished a forum theatre training session.

The outdoor activities and particularly the many attending girls is a new phenomenon in Yei Resource centre. Eric J. Moses who is the Field Officer at the Yei Resource centre observes that the progress has been attained through a deliberate strategy.

- We first carried out a school survey which assisted us to discover the big difference between boys and girls school attendance. The highest rate of pre-mature school drop outs was of girls, the same group which had low attendance at the Resource Centre.

We then decided, to initiate a Girl’s Empowerment Club to empower the girls, and tried to reach out to as many girls and parents as possible. We did this by moving to various schools, mobilizing and talking to the school authorities and girls about the formation of a club. We then selected representatives from each school to represent their school clubs at the Resource Centre Girls’ Club. We also call for team building meetings where we discuss the importance of girl’s empowerment programme. Our strategy includes, the establishment of Girl’s Netball Club and Girls’ Education Debates with topic of self esteem, assertiveness, sexual transmitted diseases and social aspects of life, says Eric J. Moses.

This has created a positive response whereby the number of the resource centre female users has steadily increased 926 in 2005 to 2600 by November 2006 and where the sports activities are of great interest to many girls.

- The challenges we face include, negative attitude of some girls who show lack of interest in the clubs. And the parent’s interference with the girls participation, especially on Saturdays which are scheduled as a day for girls to study in the Resource Centre. This restriction of girls by the parents is bad and we are trying to solve this by conducting parents awareness meetings, in which parents are encouraged to give girls their freedom and to share their experiences with them.

The parents are afraid that their girls will be befriended by boys and old men who trick them with petty gifts. According to Eric these are some of the issues the centre is trying to address.

- We are telling the girls to be content with what they already have, struggle to achieve their goals and teach them that “soft life” comes later, he says.

As a result of the parents meeting, parents have begun to express willingness to support the girls. But there is still a long way to go, particularly because many girls have problems speaking freely with their parents and presenting their issues of concern. This brings a lot of suspicion and the girls as well as the parents need to be further mobilised in collaborating about girl’s empowerment.

Data Emmanuel is the Editor for Maruba Newsletter published by Community Education Action Programme (CEAP) in Yei Southern Sudan.
Email: dataemmanuel@yahoo.com