Help 250 Youth Recover From Ebola in Guinea

As the 2020-21 school year comes to a close in Guinea, primary school students will soon take national exams in order to advance to secondary school. MindLeaps is currently sponsoring 152 MindLeaps Guinea students, several of which are in preparation for these final tests.

The MindLeaps Guinea program continues to provide academic acceleration courses to help the students build a foundation in reading and writing in English and French, with lessons on vocabulary, grammar and conjugation. MindLeaps staff members continue to conduct home and school visits in order to check on the progress of MindLeaps students in school and monitor when additional support is needed.

In other news, a donation of supplies was received by The Lions Club in Guinea on July 1st. Also in July, a new partnership with Vertice began; Vertice now delivers meals to the students at the MindLeaps Center in Conakry who are participating in the afterschool program. And in August, 40 local youth will begin a three-month MindLeaps Train the Trainer program with the goal of training new dance teachers.

Lastly, MindLeaps coordinated a cultural exchange between MindLeaps Guinea and a United States high school in May. MindLeaps dance trainers and students from Guinea spent one hour on Zoom with Social Studies and French classes from Waverly Community Schools in Lansing, Michigan. Students from both countries shared about their families, cultures, and hobbies, and MindLeaps Guinea students also performed a traditional Guinean dance (photo below). They also had the opportunity to ask each other questions about their lives and countries. The U.S. Social Studies teacher remarked, "this is the exact type of experience that translates classroom learning to authentic application. I can guarantee you that my two student presenters will forget many lessons from this year but will never forget their presentation, in French, to their new Guinean friends.”

Links:

• MindLeaps Guinea