School in Dakar, Senegal

The KiKo Foundation is asking for donations for a school in Senegal, more precisely in Béne Baraque, a socially and economically marginalized neighborhood in the Yeumbeul district of the capital Dakar. Due to the poor road conditions, the journey from the center of Dakar seems like a "world trip" to a very poor region.

It is the hometown of Babacar Camara. He has regularly stayed in Switzerland since 2002 to earn money to support his family and has gained experience in knowledge transfer there. His conviction has always been that education is a basic prerequisite for a more peaceful, appreciative and economically prosperous development of a society. In this way, he is continuing the activities of his mother, who recognized education as a solution to many problems and campaigned for it.  In 2012, he started with a school in Béne Baraque.

Despite the meager school fees of the parents, Babacar Camara tries to keep the school running for the children there. This is only possible thanks to the teachers, who support the project for little pay and with a lot of good will. Babacar Camara himself teaches as a school operator without remuneration. It is important to him that children whose parents cannot pay school fees are also allowed to attend classes. With this, he has come a little closer to his educational goal.

We should give something back to this country with its rich culture, today more than ever damaged and burdened by the environmental pollution caused by the rich industrialized countries.
Supporting education is, in our opinion, the cornerstone for everything else.

This is what the ambassador of this project advocates: Barbara Hoffmann, tax consultant of the non-profit GmbH.

Together with the owner of the foundation, Barbara Hoffmann traveled to Senegal in mid-November 2022 to visit the school and its surroundings. From conversations with confidants of Barbara Camara, from videos and photos, she was already convinced in advance that she wanted to support the project - which was confirmed after the trip.

After the on-site visit, a catalog of measures was determined, on which the follow-up of the project will depend. Whereby the roof renovation has top priority.

At the moment, the following actions are envisaged:

- Repair of the roofs
- Sponsorship of school fees
- Repair of a water pipe (a sanitary facility not usable)
- Installing rain gutters to collect and use rain water
- Floor & facade renovation
- New school benches and desks

In the future, we also want to look at equipping a photovoltaic system so that the school can generate its own energy.

Some things are still a bit vague and will be fleshed out in the future.

Docu / Film

A documentary of the film team Docyard can be found here: https://docyard.ch/sunu-ekool

Picture credits

Photos © Sabine Kopp, Barbara Hoffmann, Docyard GmbH