In mid-February, we were able to visit Linguère, which is about 6 to 7 hours northeast of Dakar, Senegal; almost in the centre of the country. To understand the difference between Dakar and Linguère, one only has to mention the word, “Linguère” to anyone in Dakar and you receive the response, “Ohhh, dafa jaffe” – meaning, “it’s hot!” It is located on the southwestern tip of the Sahara Desert. Whereas Dakar was experiencing the cooler, dry season, with a brisk ocean breeze of 16C at night, Linguère was a constant 30-35C, which goes up to 40-45C as May/June approach. In Linguère, they also run the adolescent health program, however, it is a shortened version and often broken into sections.
The World Renew Senegal curriculum committee generally meets once a week for two to four hours. The committee is made up of 8 members: David & Jessica Oldenburger, 2 peer educators, 2 supervisors, and 2 community development coordinators. This gives the committee an equal voice from all parts of the program.
These meetings have taken place since March, and nearly all 48 lessons have been reviewed thus far. The focus of the meetings is to review the lessons and make sure that they reflect what the educators are teaching. Also discussed is when to cut certain activities (for instance, if it is a duplicate of a previous lessons activity), when to merge lessons, as well as adding new information (generally in the instance of updating old health information), and re-ordering the chronology of the lessons.
At first, the meetings were difficult as there would be a mixture of French, English, and Wolof being spoken with much time being spent on translation. However, now that everyone is used to each other and their way of speaking, meetings go more smoothly. At the beginning, many of the members were against large change since they are proud of their program, but they have slowly become more open to change as they have realized that the point is not to change everything, but to help them create an easier, more concise curriculum.
Linguère
In mid-February, we were able to visit Linguère, which is about 6 to 7 hours northeast of Dakar, Senegal; almost in the centre of the country. To understand the difference between Dakar and Linguère, one only has to mention the word, “Linguère" to anyone in Dakar and you receive the response, “Ohhh, dafa jaffe” – meaning, “it’s hot!” It is located on the southwestern tip of the Sahara Desert. Whereas Dakar was experiencing the cooler, dry season, with a brisk ocean breeze of 16C at night, Linguère was a constant 30-35C, which goes up to 40-45C as May/June approach. In Linguère, they also run the adolescent health program; however, it is a shortened version and often broken into sections.
The city and surrounding villages are primarily Pular, a nomadic ethnic group. Since they are nomadic herdsman and travel as far as Mali for their cattle to graze, the program must accommodate the shorter duration available for the program. The program coordinator also runs an HIV/AIDS support group to help provide education, counselling, and social support to those impacted by the virus. In addition, each of the small villages around Linguère (as far as 35km away), have health huts, operated by a local volunteer community health worker.
Linguère is significantly different than suburban Dakar, and they have unique challenges, including higher HIV/AIDS prevalence, adolescent marriage, female genital mutilation, and challenges with meeting basic health needs of the population. The trip to Linguère allowed the identification of how to tailor the work to address their specific needs, which would include very basic health education lessons, new education material for the HIV/AIDS support group, and advanced first aid and trauma training for the village community health workers.
To learn more about World Renew's work in Senegal, click here.
Blessings,
David & Jessica Oldenburger
World Renew Global Volunteer Program
Senegal
World Renew is partnered with two local organizations in Senegal, SLDS and CECS, to support an adolescent health program in suburban Dakar, Fatick, Linguère, St. Louis, and surrounding communities. The aim of the program is to provide basic sexual health education to boys and girls who have limited or no schooling, and therefore limited access to high quality health information. As well, the program emphasizes the importance of community development and empowerment, by training the participants to become change-makers in their communities.
Esther Kühn is the country consultant for World Renew who is in charge of day-to-day operations, planning, and collaboration with the partners. David and Jessica arrived in December 2015 through World Renew’s Global Volunteer Program. Their role is to work with the partners to review the programs current curriculum, evaluate the participants’ level of understanding after completion of the program, and help identify how to strengthen the program.
David and Jessica were sent from Calvin Christian Reformed Church in Dundas, Ontario and Community Christian Reformed Church in Kitchener, Ontario. David is a Registered Nurse from Kitchener-Waterloo, with a Masters in Global Health. Jessica has her Bachelors in History and French, as well as experience in child and youth education. They expect to work in Senegal until June 2017.