Senegal

In Senegal, where 40% of the population is less than 15 years old, education is a central challenge to the country’s development, one that is still marked by poverty and child labor. The Casamance region, rattled by serious conflict for twenty years, has found some stability but is one of the least developed regions.

In Senegal, educational institutions’ lack of resources is a major cause of youth unemployment. In response to this situation, BSF and its social enterprise Kajou are implementing an ambitious program to support education, employment and entrepreneurship for 9,500 young people in the regions of Dakar, Saint-Louis, Kolda, and Ziguinchor.

BSF and Kajou have distributed 1,000 Kajou cards to high school students in the Dakar suburbs, 2,000 to young entrepreneurs and 6,500 to students of the Virtual University of Senegal (UVS). The latter also have access to Ideas Cube in the physical sites of the UVS in Kolda, Podor, Bignona, Ziguinchor and Keur Massar.

Thanks to these tools, young people benefit from thousands of school, awareness and information resources related to the Senegalese context (advice on preparing for the
baccalaureate exam, job listings and descriptions, brochures presenting university courses, etc.).

In 2019, Libraries Without Borders created the social enterprise Kajou to diffuse its quality digital content offline among people not connected to the internet in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Senegal, Kajou servers were installed in two healthcare clinics of Air Liquide. This experiment tested an all-in-one healthcare bundle in which pedagogic resources selected by our team were used to complement the medical material and oxygen therapy offered by Air Liquide in several healthcare clinics in the suburbs and the countryside. These servers contain, notably, resources for professional training for medical personnel and entrepreneurs of Air Liquide, but will also be put at the disposal of patients themselves. Our long-term goal? To allow populations to be better prepared for health crises created by the absence of information concerning sanitary habits and to support the skills of healthcare workers.

In 2018, with funding from the Yvelines Department in France, Libraries Without Borders helped Running for Africa set up a community library in Thilogne, in eastern Senegal. After a diagnostic study carried out in March 2018 to identify the local needs in terms of languages and thematics as well as the profiles of the library’s future users and facilitators, we have developed a selection of thousands of resources, both physical and digital, within an Ideas Cube. To enable facilitators to lead the library, welcome audiences, and create activities from these resources, LWB provided library science training in October. The library was unveiled and presented to the authorities and inhabitants of Thilogne in December.

In Ziguinchor, a town in one of the poorest regions in Senegal, we implemented an Ideas Box with the organization Futur au Présent (“Future in the Present”) to provide street children and child workers access to education and opportunities for social integration. In November 2017, once the contract with Libraries Without Borders was completed, our partners took ownership of the Ideas Box, a goal we have for every program. Officially beginning in April 2016, this project helped 100 uneducated children, mainly girls. In 18 months, Futur au Présent led 700 activities around the Ideas Box, which was installed in the House of Education. These included workshops in writing, theater, reading, rap, dance, math, conjugation, and dictation. Students learned using the tablets and also played board games, which fostered a team spirit and a respect for rules. Participants also created short films with the cameras provided and participated in painting and drawing activities.

In 2017, the public interest group «Yvelines International Cooperation and Development» (YCID) asked Libraries Without Borders to strengthen the development of exchanges between the students of the Telemaque Sow college located in Saint-Louis, Senegal and those of Pierre de Coubertin College in Chevreuse, France, throughout the use of the Ideas Cube. Until now, exchanges between those students were carried out via postal mail, which limited their quantity and frequency. Thanks to the Ideas Cube and with the help of the teachers involved from both institutions, Libraries Without Borders selected content in early 2018 around specific themes, including racism and discrimination, which French and Senegalese students have discussed throughout the year. Thanks to a particular configuration of the Ideas Cube and the creation of an adapted exchange platform, teachers and students from both countries were also able to exchange course materials, exams and daily pictures. In Saint-Louis, hundreds of teaching resources adapted to college learning enable teachers – trained at Ideas Cube in January 2018 – to diversify and enrich their courses, thus improving the quality of teaching given to students. The second part of this project is to consider the local manufacturing of the Ideas Cube by the technical school of Anèho, Togo, paired with the technical school of Versailles. For this, an expert from LWB, accompanied by two French interns, visited the site in June 2018 to identify potential local suppliers, technical skills within the school, the production environment, and the material transportation to and from the high school. Following this visit, we submitted to YCID and Anèho High School a study report which will serve as a basis, in 2019, for two HEC students who will continue this feasibility study directly from Togo.

From September 2015 to October 2016, 33 young project managers, all under 35 from Senegal, Côte-d’Ivoire, and Cameroon were accompanied by LWB to develop their leadership, advocacy, and innovation skills. They participated in four week-long workshops focused on reflection and training led by national and international experts.

Our Work in Senegal


Ideas Box: improving conditions for street children in Ziguinchor

Objective

Education & Cultural Diversity


Start date

2016


Status

Ongoing


Photo de filles a une projection de film dans la MDE de FAP au Senegal

CONTEXT

The extreme poverty of entire minority populations, tied to the chronic instability of the area, has lead to a rural out-migration to the main city of the region: Ziguinchor. The newly arrived populations settle in already overcrowded neighborhoods that have little access to basic educational and social services.

ACTIONS

On April 20, 2016, the first Ideas Box in Senegal launched in Dakar. Following its inauguration, it was brought to Ziguinchor to be deployed for street children and child workers in partnership with the Franco-Senegalese non-profit, Futur au Présent.

From May to October, a total of 271 activities that were offered: reading, theater, singing, and writing workshops, as well as academic support, educational exercises, film and documentary projections amongst others. In total, the Ideas Box totaled 5549 users.

BENEFICIARIES

Children lacking access to school in Ziguinchor (South Senegal).

WITH SUPPORT FROM

Financial Partners

Logo de la Fondation de l'Union des associations européennes de football

Executive Partners

Logo Association Futur Au Présent
Logo Université Ziguinchor Sénégal
Young Leaders: training program for Senegalese librarians

Objective

Social Entrepreneurship & Transformation


Start date

2015


Status

Ongoing


Photo d'un atelier d'ecriture pour les Jeunes Leaders senegalais

ACTIONS

Young Leaders is a project incubation program over 16 months that aims to develop a new generation of cultural entrepreneurs able to carry out projects with a strong social impact.

Between workshops, the 10 youths of the program were accompanied in the creation and improvement of their professional projects: to establish an information center in the city of Mbour, to create a municipal library in the city of Pikine, to develop an online system of information for the Medical Imaging Service of the Aristide Le Dantec de Dakar hospital, establish a documentary portal for the students of the African Centre for Higher Studies in Management, to name a few of the initiatives.
The presentation of the certificates of achievement took place in November 29, 2016, in Dakar. One of the Young Leaders, winner of a competition of concept notes, will receive 2000 € to develop his mobile library project.

BENEFICIARIES

10 French-speaking, Senegalese librarians and cultural entrepreneurs.

WITH SUPPORT FROM

Financial Partners

Logo de la Fondation de l'Union des associations européennes de football

Executive Partners

Logo de Futur au présent

Logo Université Ziguinchor Sénégal
Book trunks to assist Marc Roger’ interventions

Objective

Education & Cultural Diversity


Start date

2010


Status

Closed


BACKGROUND

Marc Roger left in May 31, 2009 by foot along a meridian running from the French town of Saint-Malo to Bamako, the capital of Mali, reaching his destination in June 2010. Throughout his voyage between the two towns, he read books, poems and stories by French, African and Francophone authors in schools, libraries, bookstores and, in particular, schools associated with the UNESCO network.

This one year voyage allowed the public reader to criss-cross France, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Mali. Altogether, he travelled more than 7109 km with Babel, his donkey and travel companion, holding nearly 130 readings and reaching more than 7850 listeners.

OBJECTIVES

  • To encourage the emergence of local book supply chains; more than a third of the books were purchased from African publishers.
  • To directly promote the literature of North and West Africa among the library’s public.
  • To support the practice of reading and develop a taste for reading among children and adults in these countries.
  • To promote access to culture and education.

ACTIONS

Libraries Without Borders assisted Marc Roger’s interventions by offering 20 trunks to the libraries and schools he visited in Senegal and Mali. Each contained 91 francophone books intended for a mixed public (ages 2-4 to adult). The trunks left the warehouse in March 2010 and arrived in Senegal in May and in Mali in June. They constitute small mobile libraries intended to be sent back and forth between the various schools and libraries of the villages and towns concerned.

  • The targeted donation of more than 1800 francophone books to the schools and libraries visited by Marc Roger in Senegal and Mali.
  • The acquisition of more than a third of the books from African publishers, specialist bookstores and the International Alliance of Independent Publishers.
  • Funding the transport of 20 trunks to Senegal and Mali.

BENEFICIARIES

In Mali:

  • 3 elementary schools (in Bamako and Kayes)
  • 1 middle school (Bamako)
  • 1 high school (Bamako)
  • 2 Franco-Malian Alliances  (in Kayes and Mopti)
  • The OMRIB Association – Malian Organization for the Reinforcement of Basic Initiatives (Yélimané)

 

In Senegal:

  • 8 elementary schools (in Dakar, Donaye Taredji, Gamadji Saré, Guédé, Kidira, Ngawlé and Podor)
  • SOS Children of Kaolack Village

WITH SUPPORT FROM

Financial Partners

Logo de la Fondation de l'Union des associations européennes de football

I

Executive Partners

Logo Association Futur Au Présent
Logo Université Ziguinchor Sénégal

I

AND

  • Milan
  • Kaléidoscope
  • Syros Editeur Jeunesse
  • Association of National Museums
  • Noir sur Blanc publishers
  • Gallimard Jeunesse
  • Points
  • L’école des Loisirs
  • Conseil Général de l’Essone
  • French National Commission for UNESCO
  • La Voie des Livres
  • French Embassy in Mali
  • French Embassy in Senegal
  • Association Podor Rive Gauche
  • Didier Jeunesse
  • Albin Michel