Building Schools in Senegal: Our Mission to Provide Education for Every Child

Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Moms Against Poverty has remained committed to building schools in Senegal, ensuring that children in underserved areas have access to quality education.

This year, Moms Against Poverty began construction on its sixth school in Senegal, in partnership with Natangué-Sénégal. While the pandemic has forced school closures, construction has been able to continue under strict health and safety protocols. As a result, the new school is expected to open earlier than planned this fall, providing hundreds of children with a safe learning environment.

The Urgent Need for School Infrastructure in Senegal

The city of Mbour has seen rapid population growth, increasing from 80,000 residents in 1999 to 800,000 in 2019. Many families migrate from rural areas, searching for work in coastal industries such as fishing, tourism, and construction. However, this surge in population has put enormous pressure on the city’s already-limited school system.

The Senegalese government lacks the resources to build enough schools to meet the growing demand, forcing many children to learn in abri provisoires—temporary classrooms made of straw and canvas.

Challenges of Temporary Classrooms (Abri Provisoires):
❌ No toilets or sanitation facilities
❌ No electricity for lighting or ventilation
❌ Prone to flooding during the rainy season, causing school closures
❌ Frequent reconstruction required, wasting valuable learning time

Moms Against Poverty recognizes that these makeshift classrooms are not a long-term solution. That’s why the organization has committed to improving school infrastructure in Senegal, constructing permanent, high-quality schools that can withstand all seasons.

New School Construction in the Diamaguène District

Moms Against Poverty’s sixth school in Senegal will be located in the Diamaguène district of Mbour, a low-income area with limited access to schools, healthcare, and job opportunities.

This school will provide education for 500 children in grades 1-5
Replaces multiple abri provisoires with modern classrooms
Includes administrative offices for faculty & staff

Families in this district often come from rural areas, having left behind their agricultural livelihoods in search of a better future. By investing in education access in rural Senegal, Moms Against Poverty is helping migrant families build sustainable communities while ensuring their children receive a high-quality education.

How You Can Support Education for Children in Senegal

Education is one of the most powerful tools to break the cycle of poverty. By supporting Moms Against Poverty, you can help provide:

Permanent school buildings that replace unsafe temporary classrooms
School supplies, books, and learning materials for children in need
Teacher training programs to improve education quality

Your contribution can help ensure that every child in Senegal has a safe and supportive place to learn.

Donate Now to help build schools and support education access in Senegal.

In spite of coronavirus, Moms Against Poverty started construction on its sixth school in Senegal, in partnership with our local partners at Natangué-Sénégal. While the pandemic has closed down schools, the slow spread of the outbreak allows important construction work to continue provided adequate health and safety measures are in place. This will allow us to open the school up earlier than expected this fall.

The demand for schools in Senegal is incredibly high, particularly in the city of Mbour, which has grown from 80,000 people in 1999 to 800,000 people in 2019. Many families have come to the city from rural areas in search of better job opportunities, bringing tens of thousands more children into an already-strained school system. The government doesn’t have the resources to build enough schools to support this growing population.

Many of young children in Senegal start attending school in temporary structures made of straw and canvas set up by schools who can do little else to provide for their students. These are called abri provisoire, which literally means “temporary shelter”.

These shelters have no toilets, no offices for teachers, no electricity, and frequently flood during the fall rainy season, closing down schools and forcing them to reconstruct, wasting precious time that could be spent on instruction. This clearly demands a more permanent solution, and Moms Against Poverty has been working to build high-quality school buildings which can be used throughout the year, rain or shine. To date, more than half of the students attending a Moms Against Poverty school in Senegal came from an abri provisoire and now enjoy learning in a fully built school.

Our sixth school will be located in the Diamaguène district of the city of Mbour. Currently, a preschool and elementary school are located on the site, and Moms Against Poverty’s investment will build a second elementary school that will educate approximately 500 children in grades 1-5. This will replace numerous abri provisoires that have been built in this area.

Families in this area generally have lower incomes than the rest of Mbour and have lower access to jobs, healthcare, and other resources. This district is significantly underserved, as it is a new extension of the city to the east where many recent migrants have moved. Their stories are complex, often having traveled from faraway parts of the country, forced to leave agricultural livelihoods behind in exchange for uncertain economic opportunity in Mbour. Through Moms Against Poverty’s programs in Senegal, we will help them build sustainable communities through education, health and hunger relief—and as the world hunkers down to stop the spread of coronavirus, opening our sixth school in the fall is a very welcome light at the end of the tunnel.