HelpAlliance News
Leona: „A good start but still a lot of work to be done“
In July 2006 the centre for street children and education in Leona, Senegal, had opened its doors, in February Rita Diop visited it for the first time since. The chairwoman of Help-Alliance took a first-hand look at the institution that had been completely financed by Help Alliance, and had a very positive impression of what she found. “The project had a very good start, but there is still a lot of work to be done”
„The journey was very exciting. The two-storey building was buzzing with activity”, Rita Diop reported after her return from western Africa. According to the Help-Alliance chairwoman, the reaction to the street children and education centre has been overwhelming. “65 boys and girls at pre-school age are happy that there is finally an affordable kindergarden in their neighbourhood. At the moment the nursery school teachers highly depend on their own creativity to keep the children busy – there are still a lot of things missing. So they need to improvise, and the children’s favourites are playing ball games, chasing each other after empty waterbottles or draw playing-fields into sand with stick”
Young women and girls attend vocational training courses to learn tailoring and hairstyling. For tailoring it was possible to borrow sewing-machines for the time being. But since these have to be returned at some time in the future, it is planned to buy machines for the centre soon. “The number of plastic heads used to practice hairstyling is not sufficient yet either, but also in this case demand is higher than what can currently be afforded”, Diop explains.
In the afternoons the girls from the vocational training also attend classes to learn what they “missed” in earlier years at school. “Some of them lack elementary skills like maths which they need to be successful in their trade. Just think of cutting cloth or writing invoices – without basic maths skills, they would soon run into problems”, Diop points out. Eight girls are preparing for their final school exams. Apart from the classes offered, a library was installed. “There are still important books missing. Especially African literature and more school books.”