KAKATA—Peace Corps Trainee Michael Janus worked on a project whose value every woman would understand.
He would never need a reusable menstrual pad — for obvious reasons. His short time in Liberia taught him their value for schoolgirls here. Many miss school once a month because they lack sanitary products and cannot bear the shame of everybody around them knowing they’re menstruating. The reusable pads from the Peace Corps help shield young women from another source of embarrassment.
“We’re trying to make periods less of an inhibitor for getting an education,” he said.
U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama — as well as her daughters and mother — will meet with Peace Corps Volunteers and Trainees on June 27. The purpose of her visit is to promote gender equality. Her Let Girls Learn drive is a White House initiative that seeks to expand educational opportunities for girls throughout the world. Female students will discuss the difficulties they face in getting an education when she visits a school in Smell No Taste.
Data from the Ministry of Education shows that the percentage of girls in schools decreases as they get older. Twice as many males ages 15 to 24 can read compared to females of the same age, according to UNICEF.
Many families believe education has no value for girls. Early marriage takes other girls out of school and puts them back in the home. Pregnancy transforms
promising students into struggling mothers.
At the R.S. Caulfield Junior and Senior High School in Smell No Taste, female students expressed excitement for the upcoming Obama visit.
Some like twelfth-grader Vicky Moryohn lost family members to the Ebola epidemic that shut down schools nationwide. Many live impoverished lives that require them to work before or after school. Students told FrontPageAfrica that they hope Obama can make a difference in the lives of Liberian students.
“I think she (will) come and see things are not in order and then she will be able to help us when we ask her,” Moryohn said, as reported on June 23.
A visit from the First Lady of the United States is expected to draw attention to issues of education in Liberia. She will also recognize the work of the 74 Peace Corps Volunteers and Trainees in Liberia. More than 4,000 volunteers have served here since the program began in 1962. Civil war led to a decade-long absence of volunteers. The Peace Corps came back after 2008 and each Peace Corps Trainee must complete an eleven-week pre-service training before swearing in as a Peace Corps Volunteers first make his or her way through training at the compound on the outskirts of Kakata.
They teach science and math in junior and senior high schools. Some come for a short time while others remain for years. And like Janus, many put in extra hours on their day off. His fellow Volunteers and Trainees said that it makes sense that Obama would choose to come to Kakata, considering the emphasis she places on women and Girls issues as first lady. Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) camps would benefit from the attention, said Trainee Latisha Pledger.
“There is a big gender inequality (problem) here,” she said. “So I think the initiative that she represents, Let Girls Learn, really fits our GLOW camp.”
GLOW camps instil self-confidence in girls and seek to empower them to think outside the limits imposed by society. Girls in countries as different as Belize, Macedonia and Liberia participate in GLOW.
It is a long-standing Peace Corps program that works with girls whose education was interrupted in the past. In Liberia, this could have happened because of the civil wars, Ebola epidemic, or for more personal reasons. Some girls never attended primary school because of poverty or family opposition. Others might have left school because they got pregnant.
But members of the Peace Corps don’t come to Liberia only to teach. They seek to learn as well and fulfil long-held dreams of seeing Africa first-hand.
That ambition began in 13-year-old Becky Banton who is now Director of Programming and Training at Peace Corps Liberia. She became a teacher in her hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky. At age 30 she was selected to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho and after service, she has worked for Peace Corps.
Many Americans assume that Africans are all alike.
“There is this single story about what Africa is, that it’s all the same and of course there are all sorts of variations in this country much less throughout the continent,” Banton said. “Many times what they see on T.V. is not what it’s like day-to-day … volunteers do make a positive impact on the communities they serve as well as grow themselves.”
Peace Corps Liberia Director Kevin Fleming paid homage to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for taking the lead and encouraging education for girls. Mr. Fleming says the agency works in partnership with the Ministry of Education and the strong support of President Sirleaf who has been a strong advocate for girls’ education. “We are proud to be a part of gender equity initiatives around the country and I personally feel that it is important for us to work in conjunction with the government of Liberia, the President and other US agencies as part of the larger US government efforts like Let Girls Learn to help provide access to education for girls”.
Reporter Zachary Williams is an intern with FrontPageAfrica from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.