Capital: Dakar
Area: 196,720 km²
Population: 11.1 million (July 2005)
Ethnic groups: Wolof, Fulani, Tukulor, Serer, Diola, and Mandinka
Official language(s): French
Religion(s): Muslims
Currency: 1 CFA franc = 100 centimes

SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country

In 1975, President Senghor of Senegal paid an official visit to Austria. During his trip, the idea of long-term care for children and youths in the SOS Children's Villages was presented to him. Shortly after, Hermann Gmeiner personally went to Senegal and contacted the relevant people there. The national association was founded in 1976 as the legal body for the SOS Children's Village work. The first families were able to move into SOS Children's Village Dakar in 1977. The SOS Children's Village is situated in a suburb of the capital city.

Another SOS Children's Village was able to go into operation in Koalack in 1983. As the population of this town only had access to a very old hospital, SOS Children's Villages built a mother and child clinic to serve the region around Kaolack in 1984. Ten years later a paediatric unit was added. The SOS Children's Village work was continued when SOS Children's Village Louga went into operation in the north of the country. Senegal's fourth SOS Children's Village, SOS Children's Village Ziguinchor, was built in Casamance in 1998. This is a region of ethnic tension with the neighbouring country of Guinea-Bissau. The kindergartens attached to the SOS Children's Villages are open to children from the neighbourhood and play a vital role in the integration of the SOS Children's Villages into the local communities.

Senegal's high rate of illiteracy led to the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools in Kaolack and Louga being founded. These schools have contributed greatly to improving the levels of education and offer a very high standard of teaching.

The youths who have outgrown the SOS Children's Villages live in youth communities where they learn to live on their own and SOS Children's Villages helps them to find jobs. In 2002 a terrible shipwreck occurred and killed many people and numerous children lost one or both parents. SOS Children's Villages Senegal initiated an emergency relief programme (providing food, medicine, school material etc.) and made sure that 100 orphaned children were placed in the SOS Children's Villages. As the maximum capacity of the SOS Children's Village Ziguinchor was exceeded an extension of 2 more family houses became necessary.

As the regions around the SOS Children’s Villages are marked with grinding poverty, SOS Children’s Villages Senegal decided to start a family strengthening programmes there. The aim is to enable children who are at risk of losing the care of their family to grow within a caring family environment. To achieve this, SOS Children’s Villages Senegal works directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children, in cooperation with local authorities and other service providers.

In August 2005 heavy rainfalls caused devastating flooding in Dakar and Kaolack. SOS Children’s Village Senegal in cooperation with the government started an emergency relief programme and provided the affected families with basic food, medicine, mattresses, mosquito nets etc. This emergency relief programme ended in December 2005 and supported 1130 children in 326 families.  

Some years later Dakar and its surroundings were flooded again. SOS Children’s Villages Senegal reacted quickly and initiated another emergency relief programme.

In the region of Casamance, where the SOS Children’s Village Ziguinchor is situated, conflicts between the rebels of Casamance and Guinea Bissau occur time and again. Following this, the economic sector gets weakened and as a consequence also the educational system is suffering. For this reason SOS Children’s Village Senegal decided to build a school in order to support the education of the children.

 

The region of Casamance belongs to one of the poorest regions in Senegal where great poverty, unemployment and food shortage is wide-spread. SOS Children’s Villages wants to counteract this situation with family strengthening programmes. A fifth SOS Children’s Village in the region Tambacounda will give the rising number of orphaned children a new home. They are abandoned due to great poverty and rural exodus.

 

Contact:
Association Villages d'Enfants SOS Sénégal
B.P. 728
Dakar
Senegal
tel. +221-33 82 52 190 / +221-33 82 42 001
fax +221-33 82 43 540