press-release

More Success in the Making: Counterpart Continues Improving Health and Education in Senegal

December 16, 2014

Counterpart International has worked for more than a decade to improve literacy rates for school children and health and nutrition in drought-stricken Senegal. In recognition of program success in improving diets through school feeding programs and keeping children in school, another three-year effort is now underway.

The $11.3 million program, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will reach 270 primary schools and preschools in the St. Louis Region of Senegal, building on Counterpart’s 12 years of effective on-the-ground implementation and community outreach in the country to date.

“We are building on our previous experiences and continuing to help communities be part of the solution to ensure their children are well fed and stay in school,” said Mélodie Cerin, Counterpart International’s Program Coordinator in Senegal.

The program will work directly with teachers, parents, school supervisors and the community’s Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) to increase teacher attendance, establish good health and nutrition practices, improve school infrastructure through the construction of classrooms, latrines and water station systems, provide school cafeterias and energy-saving stoves for cooking and feeding students breakfast and lunch. It will also establish sustainable community farms and granaries.

“Counterpart has a long track record of improving education programs, particularly school feeding and health and nutrition interventions in Senegal and throughout West Africa. We are excited to increase the program’s impact, which has already seen 4.5 million meals served to 25,000 children in 174 schools in Senegal and nearly 500 community members and teachers and 7,000 students participate in school gardens activities,” said Cerin.

Counterpart will work in partnership with the Ministry of Education, the Departmental Inspector of National Education, Government Agency in Charge of Early Childhood Development, U.S. Peace Corps, Agricultural Services Department and local parent associations and government agencies.


Counterpart International helps people build better lives and more durable futures, community by community. For 50 years, Counterpart has been an innovator, changing the way people look at, and solve, global development challenges. Today, we are working with more than 3,500 local organizations, and more than 150,000 leaders — including women and youth — in 24 countries around the world. Learn more at counterpart17.wpengine.com.