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In addition, girls are often neglected or mistreated in Mauritanian schools. Through our program, we will ensure that girls get the same opportunities that boys do, and that all of the children, regardless of gender, will be able to be exposed to the whole wide world through XO's.
Local Partner and Sustainability
Sustainability
The Peace Corps has been involved in Bababe for more than twenty years and is making no plans to leave. By training Bababe volunteers in teaching with the XO's, and passing on these skills to new volunteers, our program should still be flourishing long after we are gone. We will also encourage the children to keep in contact with our team by inviting them to email us photos, videos, stories and artwork and to keep us updated on their lives as they get older. There is even the possibility of setting up pen pals between the Bababe students and a school in the U.S. or the U.K., so that each culture could learn about the other and so that the Bababe children could speak with other kids their age from a different part of the globe.
Our team is also in the process of establishing an official student organization at MIT dedicated to overseeing our program, logistically, financially, and personally, after we return to the U.S. By becoming an official club, we will be able to apply to the MIT Undergraduate Association Finance Board for any funds related to our organization; this board receives around $200k every year to provide funding for student groups. In addition, we will be able to fundraise both on-campus, by holding university-wide events, and off-campus, by soliciting alumni for funds or by soliciting corporate sponsorships. These are all ways in which we will be able to provide financial support after we leave, in order We will be working with the Peace Corps and our community contact will be Zach Swank, an environmental educator in Bababe. We will work with the Peace Corps volunteers in the area and train them in teaching with XOs. They will remain after we leave, incorporating the XOs into the during and after school programs they currently work in and teaching new volunteers those skills.
In order to provide sustained support after deployment, our team is in the process of receiving recognition from MIT as an official student organization. This status will provide seed money through which we can further fundraise to maintain internet connectivity, power, connections to servers, repairs, and eventual replacement of the laptops. In addition, this forming an MIT group will further student interest in this initiative. Furthermore, because our team will exist as a club long after the initial deployment, we will be able to provide logistical support in addition to financial support for our collaborators in Bogue. Our local partner, the Peace Corps, will remain in the area for many years after our departure. Their dedicated presence in the Bogue GMC combined with our continual support will ensure that the program is sustained for several years to come.
As an MIT club, we will apply annually for additional grants to keep the initiative ongoing. We will encourage the children to keep in contact with us by emailing us their stories and artwork and letting us know how they are doingour program and in OLPC in general. By forming an organization, we hope to provide support and maintenance for existing programs and also to raise the necessary funds to send new OLPC teams to Africa every summer.
Communication
The local language spoken languages in Bababe is are Pulaar, a language used in Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia, and western Mali. There are already English-speaking Peace Corps volunteers working in Bababe who must communicate with the local population of Bababe, we should have no trouble finding translators to help us teach students and communicate with adults in the local community. To overcome the language barrier, mentors at the Bogue GMC who speak both English and Pulaar will serve as translators. Prior to deployment, our team will familiarize translating staff with our curriculum, goals, and XO capabilities to guarantee effective translation; Hassniya, a dialect of Arabic that is understood by most children because they must learn the Koran at a young age; and French. The children also learn English in school, but at the age of 6-12, they probably only know the basics. For this reason, we will most likely teach the children in French, although we will obviously still use English in English language classes.
Two of our team members can speak some French, but we will still all work with Peace Corps volunteers to make sure that we teach the students most effectively. Some of these volunteers are mentors at the Girls Mentoring Center in Bogue who speak any mixture of English, French, Hassniya, Arabic, and Pulaar. We will familiarize these translators with our curriculum and goals each day before we meet the students, to make sure that the children receive the most accurate instructions.