Education for All in Kaolack, Senegal

by Diapalante

Project Report | Mar 6, 2023
The Benefits of Safeguarding

By Liz Chandler | Trustee

Lockdown during the covid pandemic seemed like a good time to really start thinking about safeguarding and try to develop a safeguarding policy for the Diapalante Community Education Centre that was integrated into the Centre’s ethos and actions and not sitting in a book on a shelf.

A small group was formed, two trustees of Diapalante in the UK and Mamadou Kane, the co-ordinator of the Diapalante Community Education Centre, and we set off to explore the challenge of how we should approach keeping all those involved with the Centre as safe as possible from personal harm.

We completed two Open University courses together: “Introduction to Safeguarding in the International Aid Sector” and “Implementing Safeguarding in the International Aid Sector”. They sparked hours of discussion, agreement and disagreement. But did all of it apply to our Education Centre – of course not, but the very important principles underlying the courses did apply and in amongst all the pages of reading and all the lists we made, some important principles began to emerge. When we had finished with the Open University an online search brought up the UK Scouting safeguarding training and policy. Suddenly we were on our way, taking ideas from both sources.

At times we seemed to be sinking while getting our heads round this very broad subject and we are still have much to learn and many of the items are awaiting development in our action plan but we are also feeling the benefits of the exercise. There are many issues involved in safeguarding, it is a much broader subject than sexual abuse, the answers are not always easy. Keeping the actions and advice practical, and realistic, learning from our experience and the experience of others we moved forward.

I have just returned from my first visit to the Centre since 2020 as the covid pandemic started. I was pleased to see safeguarding in action: Code of Practice cards – one for Young Leaders and another for adults at the Centre, training for staff and volunteers, a list of local organisations and the help they offer, posters about safeguarding subjects that were produced for Senegal. The staff have started to include occasional safeguarding issues in language lesson texts, in IT lessons and other activities. These exercises help both the children and the adults to be more conscious of keeping themselves and others safe.

People attending the Centre now know how to raise concerns, they know that they will be listened to and taken seriously. This has meant that children and adults all feel more free to talk to staff about problems they have encountered and teenagers have asked for help to discuss delicate issues with their parents or their teachers.

I realise this is not the normal report on how we help the hundreds of people who attend the Diapalante Community Education Centre to become self sufficient and productive members of society. After struggling to know how to move safeguarding from the bookshelf to everyday practice I was impressed to see that the Centre is moving successfully along this path. I hope this report might encourage other organisations to find their own path forward.

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Nov 3, 2022
Why do teenagers come to Diapalante?

By Mamadou Kane and Liz Chandler | Centre Co-ordinator and Trustee

Young Leaders - both learners and teachers

The Diapalante Community Education Centre in Kaolack, Senegal is open to the whole community. It helps people looking for work, looking for better-paid work and many people simply trying to keep their jobs as the demands for literacy and admin skills becomes more commonplace. Children come for help when they are struggling to progress at school.

The Centre is very different to a school. Classes are smaller and much more interactive. In most lessons, English and IT skills for example, children and adults learn together. This mix of backgrounds, experience and age groups with the classes brings a vitality and freshness to the lessons. Other classes are age specific eg primary school French (schooling is in French) or address a particular group eg literacy for talibés (Senegal’s street children). Sometimes one to one teaching is best eg if the need for a specialist computer skill or vocabulary set is the issue.

Learners often contribute to the Centre by giving their time, teaching others, doing the cleaning or helping with the Centres’ chair hire business. Very few have the resources to contribute financially to the Centre’s modest overheads. The Centre’s ability to continue, today and in the future, depends on your contributions and we are very grateful for them.

For this newsletter we asked three of the in-school teenagers to explain why they come to the Diapalante Community Education Centre when they are already in full time schooling. None of them mentioned the common problems in school: lack of text-books, teaching in a language that is not their mother tongue, the poor educational background of many teachers, the strikes by school staff, the large size of the classes, the absences of teachers … things which are just part of their everyday life.

“Hello. My name is Betty. I started coming to the Centre this year and I really like it here. I come here to do English, IT and sometimes maths lessons. They help us to communicate in this language and these skills definitely help us at school and will help later when we look for a job. The Centre also allows us to share, help each other and have more freedom compared to school. I haven’t participated in the Young Leaders project yet, but I would really like to in the future if I have more time.”

“My name is Fallou. I am a member of Diapalante. The Centre means a lot to me, it is a place where we can be really comfortable, and we have a lot of freedom. Before, I was really shy. I was sometimes afraid of expressing myself in public, but now that’s no longer the case and it is thanks to Tonton Alassane’s lessons [performance art] and the Young Leaders activities, where I am a leader for the seven to nine year olds. Last year my English teacher congratulated me on the level of effort that I was putting into learning English, and I was really proud of myself and the Centre. I am praying for everyone who contributes to the Centre in any way.”

“My name is Cheikh. I have been coming to the Centre since 2018 as part of the Young Leaders programme. In 2019, I began taking part in the Centre’s other activities and helping as a supervisor. Unlike school, the Centre gives us a much greater opportunity to develop our IT skills and also gives us access to the library. Here we do activities with people of all different ages and professions. Now I always have good grades in school and that is thanks to our beloved Centre. We play, we learn, we help each other and we get to know everyone. Thank you”.

These Senegalese teenagers are just one group of the many children and adults who benefit from your donations to The Diapalante Community Education Centre. Thank you for the opportunities that your support brings.

A teenage Young Leader teaching

Young Leader helping children read

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