Post: Malanville
Pick up Location: Parakou
Project Description: Volunteer is organizing a 2 day conference for girls that will include training sessions on HIV/AIDS, nutrition, goal setting and planning for the future, and staying in school. The conference will end with a celebratory dinner for participants.
Dates of Project: unspecified
Number of People Involved: 20 girls, 4 women, 1 volunteer
Budget:
| Item | Number | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients for Dinner for 20 People | 11.000 | |
| Preparation and Delivery of Dinner | 2.000 | |
| Notebooks | 20 | 2.500 |
| Sodas | 24 | 4.000 |
| Pens | 50 | 2.500 |
| Math Kits | 20 | 10.000 |
| Total | 32.000 CFA |
Amount Requested: 32.000 CFA
Comments
GAD Coordinator Comments: Before agreeing to fund this project it would be nice if we had more information about the project, the session presenters, and the people helping her to organize it. Also, if she is buying 24 sodas for 4.000, she is paying about 166 CFA each; this does not seem possible unless she is buying from the distributor. I contacted Meagan by email almost a month ago asking for more in depth information about this project and I still have not received a response. When we do in-depth GAD Small Projects presentations, it might be a good idea to review the basics of proposal writing, including the importance of justifying all of the items in your budget, giving accurate price breakdowns, not using “franglais,” and using complete sentences.
GAD Finance: I would appreciate a breakdown of the planned program, and the number of people involved besides the girls themselves. In addition, I believe that a budget of food should be detailed, aka a breakdown of prices. Moreover, I think that if she has yet to update you on more in depth information and she has already been asked, we should wait until this information is received before we go ahead and fund the project
GAD Specialist: I agree with both of you.
Update: PCV stated that the sodas are purchased through a friend who can get her the discount to 4000 per case; this is less than getting individual sodas at a bar. PCV had initially decided to purchase math kits only for the girls with the best attendance records, but because of the changed date and purpose of the conference, they decided to purchase one kit per girl. I updated the budget accordingly. Updated project description:
“The idea for the conference came about because of scheduling conflicts with the girls at the local public high school. we were discussing the idea of forming a girls’ club at the high school but we could not find a time when all the girls would be available to come if they wanted to so we decided to focus our efforts into a more concentrated amount of time and group of girls. The girls in their third year were chosen. The topics we hope to discuss include STDs and HIV/AIDS, study skills, goal planning, nutrition, recycling, sexual harassment and a new addition is child trafficking. Professional women from around Malanville have been chosen to lead each subject. A female doctor from the local hospital has agreed to come and discuss nutrition, OSV Jordan, a local AIDS NGO has a female representative who has agreed to come. Goal planning, study habits, and sexual harassment will be led by the female teacher at the high school. A representative from ONG GRADH, an NGO who works with trafficked children has a woman who has agreed to come talk.
The goal of the conferece has changed somewhat. Now that the school year has ended we are hoping to use it as an opportunity to inform the selected group of girls on the various topics, and the girls will then plan events with their fellow students. The girls and I have discussed several projects that they are eager to attempt at the school as well as around Malanville. So the conference will be our menas of forming the girls over topics which they listed as important in Malanville.
Closing Report
Brief Project Description: Girls’ club formation. Over weekly meetings successful women working in a variety of fields came to talk to the girls about various topics including: nutrition, AIDS, environmental protection, recycling, staying in school, study habits and goal planning. Girls learned about various resources in Malanville for future projects.
Number of People Involved and Age Range: There were 15 girls from 15-18 years old, 2 adult teachers and 4 women from Malanville.
What were the goals/objectives of this project? The goals were to introduce positive role models to the girls and to train them to become peer educators, providing them with information needed for future projects. The girls wanted to use the girls club to do work in the community so we picked topics which they thought were important areas in need of improvement in Malanville.
Were those goals/objectives met? Yes. At the end of the sessions we had a meeting to brainstorm possible future projects. The girls were able to use the new information to organize mock sensibilisations. We also made 2 action plans for projects we would like to complete by the end of the school year.
What were the strengths of this project? The girls learned about the benefits of school by being exposed to educated women who work in Malanville. They were motivated to start projects in Malanville, and they learned about the resources they have in Malanville. Also the girls learned skills such as goal planning, and action plan writing which will help them in all aspects of life.
What were the challenges/weaknesses of this project? We had a lot of problems finding time to work together. We had to keep rearranging the dates, and finally a 2/3 day conference became weekly formations that we could work around all of the girls’ schedules.
Do you consider this project completed? Yes.
Budget:
| Item | Number | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Dinner at the first meeting | 20 meals | 7,400 CFA |
| Notebooks | 20 | 2,700 CFA |
| Pens | 20 | 2,500 CFA |
| Math kits | 15 | 9,750 CFA |
| Sodas | 20 | 5,500 CFA |
| Dinner for end celebration | 20 | 6,900 CFA |
| Cooking demonstration ingredients | 12 ingredients | 3,875 CFA |
| Total | 38,675 CFA |
