Social Issue

Kolda is the poorest region in Senegal. The economy revolves around agriculture and livestock and has a lower literacy rate than the average in Senegal. The general percentage of literacy in this region is 38.9%, 54.1% in men and 27.2% in women.

Currently the Sinthiang Diwere school is composed of 8 classrooms, 6 of cement, and 2 classrooms built of cane and covered with grass and straw on sandy ground. Due to its poor condition and fragility, it is affecting the education and health of the students, During the rainy season, the children cannot attend school.

It is an educational center that the government of Senegal covers all the costs of teachers, but as happens on many occasions in rural areas, the local and regional government does not have enough resources for the construction of educational infrastructures, delegating this construction to parents and teachers, and consequently, they are built year after year with straw and reed.

Our Response

Since 2018, Fundación Guné, with the support of private foundations, has funded the construction of educational infrastructure in more impoverished rural areas of Senegal.
The proposal is to build a concrete building to replace one of the two classrooms made of straw. The current school consists of 8 buildings, 2 are thatched and 6 are concrete. It is proposed to upgrade one classroom.

Members of the Guné Asociación Guné (local counterpart of the Fundación Gune) will be monitoring the project throughout the whole process. At the local level, a management committee will be installed in the village, a committee chosen by the community represented by people from the village who will ensure the proper functioning and implementation of the school.

Expected Social Impact

As an educational infrastructure construction project, it will be useful and will benefit all the boys and girls of the Sinthiang Diwere village for many years to come. Specifically, the classroom will benefit 64 students.