IMPACT STATEMENT
Friends of Guéoul, Inc.
July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2015
Our scholarships have been given to 145 students over 11 years, of whom 117 remain in public school. Our core mission is to select each year 12 of the poorest girls in Guéoul ready to enter first grade. We give them a scholarship of $100 for each year they stay in school. An after-school academic enhancement program provides classes in math and French as a Second Language.
Sox years of attendance and grade results for our scholarship girls are being analyzed. Preliminary assessments show improved academic performance. As we train our staff in Guéoul in the basics of record-keeping, more data will be available.
The technical infrastructure of our computer classroom was improved with a Rotary Grant in January 2015. Brent Gatewood came to Gueoul two years in a row to modify the physical structure. This year a representative of UGB (University Gaston Berger in Sénégal) deemed it one of the best school computer facilities in Sénégal.
A high school chemistry program was funded by a Rotary International grant and Pagosa Springs Rotary. Two chemistry professors worked with high schools in Guéoul and two other rural towns to show the use of simple experiments to demonstrate basic principles, to bring texts, equipment and supplies, and to build a chemistry classroom. This program will repeat in February 2016, with the addition of a biologist. Based on funding, it will be repeated again in 2017.
An introduction to science program will be part of the February 2017 science projects. Scientists will conduct a two hour class for all elementary school students in Guéoul (approximately 740 students) during a one-day science extravaganza.
Books for Africa received a generous donation of money and books on behalf of Friends of Guéoul. An entire container of books and other educational supplies will arrive in time for our 2016 Summer School. A Fulbright specialist is seeking approval from the US Department of State for a library and technology grant to work with us and schools in Guéoul and to select the books. Crutches for Africa will send up to 1000 mobility devices to Guéoul.
A branch university is under construction in Guéoul! In 2013 Friends of Guéoul, the Republic of Sénégal, and the University of Gaston Berger (UGB) entered into an agreement for the construction, with the first class expected in October 2017. Many collaborations will grow out of this, the first being UGB’s professors working with our Summer School staff.
For Summer School 2016. We are conversing with Rotary, several educational institutions and leading educators. A team will be formed to improve course content, enhance the teaching skills of local teachers and work with our staff to support improved program effectiveness. Our goal is to develop English Language Intensive and Computer Competency programs for the Summer School so our students meet new national admission requirements of the universities in Sénégal.
GOALS FOR JULY 2015 – JUNE 2016
Quite simply our goals are to continue the projects listed above, to develop the strengths and capacity of our staff in Guéoul to administer the projects, to continue to raise enough money both for our core mission and these evolving projects, and to recruit board members and volunteers to accomplish it all!