Regions: Africa   Asia   Latin America


Name of Organization: XAM DEFARU

Country: Senegal

Project Title: "Projet « Aar Gone Yi » D'ouverture D'une Ecole Communautaire De Base Dans Le Village De Internement Des Lepreux De Peykouk" ("Project ‘Aar Gone Yi' for the creation of a community-based school in the Leprous village of Peykouk")

Project Timeframe: 10 months

Location of Project: Thiès

Budget Amount: $10,000

NGO contact and website:
Villa no 179 Quartier 10eme RIAOM
Thies Rep du Senegal
Phone: (221) 555 12 00 or 564 71 02
E-mail: gayemohamed@yahoo.fr

Project's Primary Objective: Raise awareness of the importance of education for all children, and mobilize a wide array of actors to improve and expand education infrastructures.

Description of Organization: Xam Defaru has been playing a big role in non-formal basic education in Senegal since its inception in 1997, and has been running an annual sub-project of the PAPA project created by the government Senegal with Canadian-CIDA development funds.

The objectives of the NGO Xam Defaru are:
  • To participate in the fight against illiteracy
  • To promote respect for human rights
  • To work for the end of child labor
  • To support community-based organizations in the elaboration and implementation of their activities, particularly the monitoring of income generating activities
Xam Defaru is divided into three commissions: Peace and Human Rights, Environment and Health, Education and Training. Xam Defaru also intervenes in the struggle against HIV/AIDS, community nutrition, reforestation, functional literacy, and campaigns to end violence against women.

Description of Project funded by CIRCLE: Xam Defaru's CIRCLE project aims at solving a serious problem: a low rate of schooling of 37% in the village of Peykouk, inhabited by people affected by leprosy. This fact is due to a lack of a real social development policy based mainly on the formation and social integration of handicapped people.

The project aims to save children from this community from a life of begging, which has seriously affected the education of children who forego school and work as personal companions for their begging parents. Many migrate seasonally into the urban centers, such as Dakar and Thiès, to find more money. As for the village school, it is attended by children from other villages.

The project's strategy is to set up a public workshop gathering the pupils' parents, local authorities, NGOs, religious organizations, and authorities of the public technical services, so as to share the orientation of the project and the form of participation from each group that can add to the project's success. Xam Defaru will create a community-based school of two classes and will enrol 100 children who, because of begging, dropped school too early. These children will be given the opportunity to sit for the first elementary cycle exams, after nine months of training. The project will also conduct nine radio broadcasts to give a public account of the evolution of the project and sensitize people to the dangers of child labour.

100 children enrolled in the community-based school will take classes up to June 2006. With an expected result of 50% success rate for the 6th grade exam, about 50 children will then transition to a formal education setting to continue secondary education. Other students will transition to a technical training center.

Project Targets (Common Indicators):
Enrollment: 100
Persistence: 100 %
Transition: no transition to non-CIRCLE funded programs
Conclusion: 100%