Vulnerable Schools Program

Koranic boarding schools, called Daaras, are the primary source of education for many children in northern Senegal. The Daaras often lack the necessary resources to provide their students (taalibés) with an adequate living and learning environment. These conditions result in poorly educated and nutritionally deficient children.
 
The Koranic School Program focused on finding solutions to address the needs of over 3,800 students attending the rural Koranic schools of Mboumba, Belel Boghal, Bodé, Doumgalaw in Podor and Koki in Louga.
 
Through this program Counterpart International (Counterpart) provided two hot meals daily to over 3,000 students, and was able to facilitate the construction of schools and latrines for 8 of the 9 participating schools. The program provided children with learning materials to aid in their educational process as well as bedding mats and mosquito nets since many children sleep on barren floors.

Counterpart supplied cooking utensils and training for cooks and helped organize democratically elected school management committees that involve marabouts and other community leaders. Students and teachers are de-wormed twice a year and soon an improved educational and technical/vocational curriculum will be fully implemented.

Please read USAID's article on Counterpart's Vulnerable Schools Program.

To learn more about Counterpart's Vulnerable Schools Program in Senegal, please read the following feature story:

Koranic Students Lunch and Learn

Counterpart Global Scholarship Program: "Leaders for a Sustainable Future"

Khardiata Ly grew up in the small village of Guede Chantier near Podor, Senegal where young girls, if they went to school at all, normally dropped out after the sixth grade to work full time on the family farm or to marry and begin families. But Khardiata stuck by her conviction that education was the way to a better life.

The 2006 winner of Counterpart's Global Scholarship, Khardiata was recognized by the organization for her commitment to higher education and her dedication to her local and global communities with an award of US $1,000 to be used for further study in the field of her choice.

Overcoming intense obstacles to graduate from high school, she graduated from high school and used Counterpart's funds to attend a college, where she earned an undergraduate degree in law. After graduation, she planned to take her education even farther, applying for professional law school and moving later in 2006 to Dakar, the Senegalese capital.

Khardiata's mother participated in a Counterpart canning training and small business seminar the previous year. Learning how to preserve and store tomatoes and sweet potatoes, Fatima Sow sold about 800 jars, saving the money to help pay for her son's education. He too plans to get his undergraduate degree, following his sister's footsteps. While Khardiata plans to work in business law, she hopes to help other young girls from her community pursue similar goals.

The Counterpart Global Scholarship seeks to empower young leaders by creating a sustainable future through education. Past recipients have included a woman studying business in Uzbekistan; a memorial award for a young man in Iraq studying engineering; and a group of female students studying the effects of mother-to-child HIV transmission in Guyana.

Emergency Locust Control Assistance Program

Locusts destroyed much of the 2005 crop in Mauritania and Senegal, leaving farming communities afraid to plant and without proper nutrition or sources of income for their families. Over half of southern Mauritania's population had been forced to limit themselves to one meal a day. Counterpart, in partnership with Catholic Relief Services offered an Emergency Locust Control Assistance Program (ELCAP). 

The main goal of the program was to improve the food security of populations affected by the locust invasions and to build their capacity to mitigate the impact of future outbreaks on their livelihoods. The project increased farmer's access to seed and animal feed. Training and mass information campaigns as well as establishing community-based surveillance systems ensured timely responses to prevent future outbreaks and leave families with access to healthy, nutritious meals in the future. In total, 28,000 families benefitted from this program.