Sarah Lawrence College students help with literacy

JBFC has been delighted to welcome students from Sarah Lawrence College to our campus for the second year in a row. This year’s group of 7 students, led by SLC faculty member Kim Ferguson, will stay at JBFC for nearly six weeks during their visit to Africa.

Students arrived on campus in mid-January, and they have stayed busy!  In addition to learning more about JBFC’s four pillars, participating in extra-curriculars, and Swahili lessons, the students have taken on projects that they will complete in the next month. 

In addition to assisting with creative staff development workshops, such as book-making, a major focus for Sarah Lawrence students is to pilot a six-week family literacy program. The goals of this program are to bring families together to read at home, identify barriers to reading at home, improve literacy in the whole community, and expand access to JBFC’s library.

Joseph and Mary Form Two (9th grade) students are assisting and they will be using information from this pilot program to partner with another school. We hope to develop a community service project to improve literacy in our entire village.

While promoting reading in our village, Sarah Lawrence students are also helping to improve reading and reading comprehension on our school campus. They're working with our Office of Student Development to conduct literacy and comprehension testing on all of our students and helping to create age-appropriate essay writing curriculums. We are so excited about the success of these programs so far, and the incredible potential moving forward.

Sarah Lawrence students also arrived during our Art Appreciation Month at JBFC.  They will be helping to integrate art across all subjects in preparation for our school-wide art show in February.  There are several talented artists in this group from Sarah Lawrence, so the timing is perfect!

Sarah Lawrence students are enjoying the campus and getting to know the girls at JBFC and the students at the school.  Hannah shares, “the girls at JBFC definitely make the experience for me, at least. They are amazing, so friendly and welcoming, and have taught me so much about themselves and myself.”

Linnie is returning to JBFC for her second time and says, “It’s a different experience coming back because I have been here before. How welcoming the girls have been is really shaping my experience right now. It does sound cliché, but it does feel like coming home. The girls treat other people like a family, or an extended family, it just feels like coming home and I like that a lot.”

In addition to assisting with creative staff development workshops such as book-making, a major focus for Sarah Lawrence students is to pilot a six-week family literacy program.  The goals of this program are to bring families together to read at home, identify barriers to reading at home, improve literacy in the whole community, and expand access to JBFC’s library.  We are so excited about the success of this program so far, and the incredible potential moving forward. 

 JBFC is so grateful for Sarah Lawrence College’s partnership, and the wonderful ways they are helping our students and our community during their stay.


Blogger Diana Booren is JBFC's Volunteer Coordinator. Feel free to email her  at dbooren@jbfc-online.org if you would like to volunteer at JBFC's campus in Tanzania.