This post was written by a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer who serves in a village not far from where I live. At a time when many of the young people of Armenia are exercising their right to free speech, it is easy to see how important a debate club can be in encouraging civil discourse, critical thinking and self-confidence. I hope the club that Sierra helped to found continues long into the future. Read her story below.
Gayane in a debate
Today I (finally) closed out my Let Girls Learn grant, which was used to start a debate team at my school. I wanted to share some of the pretty cool things that my community, my counterpart, and I accomplished. This grant was successful beyond what I imagined it would be, and even though we weren’t able to put on the final debate because of circumstances beyond our control, those kids were ready, they were excited, and they were working hard. The important part, I guess, wasn’t whether or not the kids were able to show off what they had learned, but that they had actually learned it.
Let’s just start with some impressive numbers:
- I expected to attract 20 kids to the first few meetings and keep 10 of them on board for the whole project, and I was expecting most of them to be…
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Marigold Moment 