Care & Community in Senegal

We would really like you to participate in a Care & Community placement in French-speaking Senegal. Working on our projects in and around Saint Louis, you will inevitably encounter basic facilities and limited resources but also a warm welcome and lots of laughter.

From 9am to 1pm, all volunteers on Care & Community projects work in local kindergartens with children aged from 3 to 6 years old. Many parents are very keen to send their children to these kindergartens, often struggling to pay the small fees charged, and it's not unusual to find classes of up to 45 children. However, local teachers tend to be overstretched and poorly trained, and have very few ideas as to how to work productively with such large numbers of children.

Volunteers may find themselves working alongside local staff in the main classes, or taking smaller groups of children aside to focus on specific activities. Your duties will involve teaching basic numeracy, building vocabulary in French and sometimes English, and organising arts and sports activities to improve coordination and motor skills. You will have an important role in adding to the staff's repertoire of songs, games and activities, ensuring that your contribution lives on beyond your placement. The children themselves will be particularly appreciative if you prepare colouring-in sheets or organise arts and crafts sessions.

In Saint Louis there are a large number of street children known as 'talibés'. These children receive no formal education and are forced to spend much of their time begging for scraps of food and small change. Many Teaching & Projects Abroad volunteers choose to spend some of their spare time helping at "And Taxuwu Talibé," a talibé drop-in centre on the mainland of St Louis. Volunteers prepare and serve at least two meals a week, often to over 150 children at a time. You may also want to help the children with activities such as brushing their teeth and washing their clothes, and just spend time with them drawing pictures or playing. Volunteers also sometimes take the children to the nearby beach or arrange evenings of wrestling and football.

To read a more detailed information about this project, you may visit our Volunteer Care & Community in Senegal specialized website.