Sponsor a Child in Senegal
- ChildFund came to Senegal: 1985
- Population below poverty line: 54%
- News about Senegal
- Community in Senegal Unites to Protect, Educate Its Children Read More
- Around the Globe with ChildFund in 31 Days: Delivering Community Health Care in Senegal Read More
- Children Speak Up: A Drama Read More
- Saving the Lives of Mothers and Protecting Their Children Read More
Senegal is the western-most point of the African continent. It is a former French colony and was a major center for slave trading through its Goree Island during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, Senegal is a peaceful and democratic nation with 58 percent of the total population under the age of 20. Like many developing countries, Senegal faces many challenges such as high unemployment, poor access to education particularly for girls, limited health care for mothers and children under five, food shortages and access to clean water.
First Steps to a Stronger Community
Though infant and maternal mortality rates are slowly decreasing, vulnerable women and children are facing challenges from preventable diseases, including malaria, which is widespread in Senegal. For this reason, we teach prevention to help stop the spread of diseases and treat those who are infected. One way we do this is through Health Huts, which serve as vital hubs for learning and living. Through these we have distributed more than 800,000 treated bed nets to protect against malaria-carrying mosquito bites and have provided medical supplies and access to clean water.
ChildFund Senegal has significant experience managing donor-funded health projects in Senegal. In 1998, ChildFund Senegal began a nutrition program funded by USAID/Washington that was extended until 2006; in 2003-06, USAID/Senegal funded ChildFund Senegal to conduct a malaria and TB program; and in 2006, ChildFund Senegal was awarded US$12.8 million by USAID to lead a consortium of four INGOs for a five-year Community Health Project (PSSC). In 2007, ChildFund Senegal was asked to extend the consortium to include six NGOs to implement a US$7.8 million President’s Malaria Initiative program in five regions as an adjunct to the original PSSC grant. Both programs are community-based prevention and treatment efforts.
“In this country of gender and age inequity, it’s important to include girls and women in educational efforts.”
The project aims to improve family health and community health in Senegal by targeting areas and practices that have a crucial impact on public health: Mother, child and newborn health; family planning; fight against illness; community-based malaria control with focused interventions; information education for health behavioral change. The consortium runs more than 1,370 community Health Huts.
ChildFund Senegal is also currently the lead executing agent for the Programme de Renforcement de la Nutrition (PRN), a nutrition program funded by the Government of Senegal and the World Bank in ten districts, and an implementing partner on a USAID/OFDA funded food security project. In addition, ChildFund Senegal is working alongside Catholic Relief Services on the Water Resources Integrated Management Program funded by OMVS to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with malaria and other diseases.
Education: a path toward a bright future
In this country of gender and age inequity, it’s important to include girls and women in educational efforts. We’ve improved learning environments through infrastructure, equipment and material support. We work to provide access to quality educational opportunities in 72 kindergartens, 120 primary schools and 38 teenage skills training centers. Lifelong adult learning programs target women and youth through 27 literacy centers.
Healthy Beginnings
Early emphasis was made on the nutritional follow-up of children from an early age through regular weighing sessions, talks on nutrition and cooking demonstrations and vitamin A supplementation and immunization. Guide mothers have been trained in toddlers’ care and early stimulation, and then taken over by monitors, which led to the opening in all affiliated communities of early-learning centers or dream corners.
In total, 72 day care centers and 10 early-learning centers have been built and 10 others renovated. Early childhood care and development has three fundamental objectives. Firstly, it provides support to parents during the early years of children’s lives, then it makes a harmonious transition between educational activities and other social services and, finally, it provides children with educational experiences that facilitate the transition to primary education.
Integrating education
ChildFund Senegal has put significant effort into improving the educational environment. It attempts to implement an innovative approach that integrates education with health and other sectors: construction and renovation of classrooms, establishment of school libraries, support in teaching material. The use of well water in schools, water pumping systems, the introduction of school canteens and micro-projects at school are concrete interventions designed to increase access to quality for 190 primary schools and 38 training centers for young people.
Significant efforts are being made to improve all facets of primary school, including the improvement of the curriculum for education and provision of instructional material.
Please sponsor a child in Senegal.