Organized world?

n 1948 The UN Declaration of Human Rights set forth a set of standards to which every man, woman, and child should have the opportunity and rights to live with and by. These standards include everything from adequate living conditions, to the right to employment and education. Yet, today our world still struggles to provide these rights to each and every person. Those that struggle most are the vulnerable populations of developing countries, and the most vulnerable are those unable to fight for their rights. Today more than ever new innovations and proactive organizations are fighting to address the daunting issues that children in developing countries are facing. Questions surrounding the well being of our future generation are beginning to be answered. Sadly the slow process of development hinders many of these resources. Development cannot happen over night, and each country has its own process and time-span while developing. Thus how does the process of “development” obstruct resources and the lives of children in developing countries, particularly in Senegal? Are resources available for youth adequate? What are their strengths, what weakens them? My time in Senegal has brought a few steps closer to these questions that have been lingering for the last 3 years of my academic career.
Senegal a county of over 12 million inhabitants is considered upscale in development in comparison to most African countries. Though on it’s way to becoming a developed nation, Senegal still struggles to climb its way to the top. Evidence of its third world status is ostensible not only in the rural cities and villages, but also inside the bustling capital, Dakar. Often in countries where resources are scarce, education and resources for children are not on the top of the list of priorities. Senegal having a literacy rate of merely 39.3 % proves that access to education is not at the hands reach for all. Also the fact that only 5% of the countries GDP is expended on education, reinforces that the education system is not emphasized, as it should be. Surprising despite the low literacy rate the nation, Senegal claims to focus a great amount of energy to education. Also being 94% percent Muslim education is highly valued in Islam. With the 21st century also came a new emphasis on education and early childhood development. NGO’s concerning the well-being and education of youth began to emerge more and more, and governmental policies and funding also arose to fuel this new prospect of improving conditions for youth. Despite steps in the right direction, the country is still mired by its third world status, and development still prevents many organizations to reach their full potential.
The state of childhood care and education was far from brilliant in the start of the 21st century and according the Ministry of Health and Medical Prevention “childhood until today had been considered a matter of subsidiary importance.” Because of this lack of concern towards early childhood care and development, Senegal was experiencing problems with an uneducated population, high malnutrition rates and high unemployment rates (for the middle age generation-whom were not educated as children). Concern about the future generation was not stressed. In the year 2000 with the newly elected president more of an emphasis began to surface. President Abdoulaye Wade began to weigh the pros and cons of traditional societies attitudes and acts towards education and childhood development and use them for the formation of an early childhood development program.
Traditional societies were and are said to have a very “pro-birth attitude” pertaining especially to agrarian societies where children are seen as “value capitals and guaranteers of economic might.” Proper nutrition was not emphasized and education and socialization were at the hands of the entire community. Education includes tales, riddles, and proverbs. “Any progress towards modern education was seen as making one a stranger to ones own cultural heritage” (Little Children’s Home). Wade’s new vision towards early childhood development wanted to see a shift in education but also embody some of the important traditional values, such as lessons from elders and communities, to maintain the sense of “terranga” that all Senegalese people pride themselves on. In 2000 Wade started The Integrated Programme for Early Childhood Development. He began to construct what he named “The Little Children’s Home,” this home emphasized on education, health, and nutrition- all to create harmonious childhood development. These Little Children’s Homes eventually branched off into schools called La Case des Toutes Petites. These schools provided education and nutritional assistance (vitamins, one meal a day, vaccines etc) for pregnant women and children 0-6 years of age. The schools were supported and funded by many national and international actors, and Wade made it his goal to “have these children live by his side, under his protection, and his contributions are voiced readily throughout every aspect of this organizations.
The visions of La Case du Petites cannot be said to be backward and it is difficult to find any flaws within its description.
“Education should enable a child to affirm its personality, develop its talents as well as mental and physical faculties. “Education should prepare the child for a life as an adult in an open society and encourage it to respect its parents, identity, language and cultural values, as well as the cultural values of others. “Aims to prepare and raise a new type of citizen able to address the needs of our nation and the African continent, and the challenges of globalization and development (Wade).
With such strong visions one would hope that this program could be the answer to many of the key issues pertaining to early childhood development, but like any other Case du Petite has its hindrances and flaws. Because the Little Children’s Home and La Case du Tous Petites have been Wade’s special projects, the organization seems to be very well funded- from its main hub, to its individual’s schools, no resources seem to be lacking. While I favored the teaching styles, the discipline, the focus on language and creativity that the schools displayed, I was left wondering exactly what demographic these schools were reaching out to.
It was Wade’s vision to put needy mothers and children under his wings, yet from what I experienced and perceived the children attending the school seemed to be upper to middle class. There is no mention how these families pay for this early child hood care, just mention of governmental aid, and his excellency Wade’s contributions. How are the vulnerable populations of Senegal being reached and informed about these resources? La Case du Tous Petites does not have a recruiting process, instead you must visit to enroll your children. Will families whom truly need this resource be aware of it, and if so will they have the time during their day of work to complete the long process of enrolling their children? The reason I mention the length of the process is because to me this is where development is severely undermining this organization. While waiting at La Case du Tous Petites headquarters one day, I witnessed couples waiting for over two hours to be addressed and begin the process of enrolling. If you count travel and lag time potentially 4-5 hours of ones day could be lost, simply waiting. To take that much time away from a workday for anyone, is taking just even more of what is probably already a very small livelihood- if the people accepted into the school are truly the vulnerable populations of Senegal. I witnessed one mother who waited for two and a half hours, who was constantly looking down at her watch, and eventually had to leave without being addressed. I believe the slow pace of the country and many organizations truly is a crucial hindrance to why “development” may also be slow moving. While La Case de Tous Petites has a great vision, they are still affected by, one, what I perceive more as promoting a president rather than education. Also affected by lack of knowledge about running an organization smoothly and efficiently-a knowledge that will come with time-but for now a detour in the road to opening up adequate and efficient resources for youth. La Case de Tous Petites is just one resource available for youth within in Senegal. The others share their fair share of strengths and weakness as well. Early childhood care and education are extremely important for our future generation, where are those from the generation who lacked this care today, are there resources available for them?
Another place I had the opportunity to visit was Centre Nationale de Sauvegaurde (CNS). CNS is a middle school and high school for adolescences that have committed petty crimes, or have trouble in a traditional academic setting, or those who are having issues with family life. These children are referred to this school by a wide variety of people; mothers, fathers, judges, or teachers. CNS focuses on education but also job training- attempting to cater to the needs of each child and finding what they feel confident in and are most likely to excel in. CNS also focuses on social activities- creating confidents and bonds for the children. CNS’s main mission is to remove children from the streets before they reach delinquency. This organization strives to attend to the children that are being ignored or forgotten by the rest of society. Another great stride this organization is taking, unlike that of publically funded schools, is they are partnering with GEEP to teach sexual health education to these children, focusing on some key aspects of GEEP including HIV/AIDS, and early pregnancy. The youth of CNS have been involved in various conferences, and events working to combat these crucial issues. CNS in theory is a wonderful organization and resources available to the youth population of Senegal, but like every organization it struggles to reach its full potential due to many roadblocks standing in its way.
Because CNS is a private organization it is only partially funded by the government, and only so because of the state required curriculum it teaches. The moments you arrive at CNS you can sense the severe underfunding the organization endures. What you would expect to look like a school looks more like an industrial sheet metal atmosphere, and until you talk with someone nothing would lead you to think otherwise. Because of underfunding this school lacks the appropriate staff to teach and train these children, and often they come and go, due to better opportunities arising. The founder of CNS said her self that the vocational skills being taught are not sufficient when its time for these children to take what they have learned and apply it to a real job setting. The teachers are not educated and trained enough to teach these skills, thus the children are not educated enough to use them, it becomes a vicious cycle, one that this very organization started, in hopes of breaking. Although Wade claims to emphasize the importance of education for all, CNS is a perfect example to how Senegal’s education system is not entirely developed, and how at-risk youth are ignored. I left CNS wondering, if the education system of Senegal is not fully developed, and education being an extremely crucial factor in development, where does Senegal as a country remain? What is a developed education system, and who do should we compare it to? Again I try not to let my western views intrude on my thoughts, but I wonder will an education system only be acknowledged as developed by the rest of the world when it resembles that of a western system? I struggle to separate my western standards, and simply standards that should be available to all. These questions plagued my mind throughout my time and experiences not only within the organization world of Senegal, but every time I walked down the street or every time we drove down the rural highways of the country. The last organization I will talk about, being the best of the three in terms of running efficiently again remains having numerous and commendable strengths but also issues that may overrun those strengths at times.
GEEP or Group pour l’Etude et l’Enseignement de la Population is an organization which aims at informing youth on their rights and responsibilities towards the population and their own reproductive health. It started with the history and geography department of L’Ecole Normale Superior (the university I studied at.) The professors from this department came together because they saw that there existed no emphasis on sexual education and health in the national school system and created a program which focuses on sexual health and AIDS. With this they focused on spreading information and organizing youth to discuss many of Senegal’s daunting issues including; HIV/AIDS, STDs, early pregnancy and marriage, gender based violence, female genital cutting, and more. Because, not part of the national education curriculum GEEP started what they call EVF clubs, an after school program for individual schools to discuss these very issues. At certain points during the year these clubs come together to form conferences to discuss these issues; they set up role playing, dialogues, movies, and debates in order to express their opinions, feelings, and knowledge about these issues, and of course to spread these things as well, in hopes of creating a greater and wide range understanding for all. Each activity they do is structured in a way in which youth can understand, relate, and feel comfortable discussing. Some may argue that the way these activities discuss these issues, using dialogues and role-playing are just ways around discussing the real issues, in my opinion it is the opposite. Because HIV/AIDS and issues overall about sexual health are extremely stigmatized subjects, not only in Senegal but throughout the world it is often difficult to talk about (which I also experienced through a day at the hospital), especially for youth. Finding creative ways to truly address the issues and ways that will leave no one frightened or guilty is one of the best ways of combating these issues.
GEEP has been extremely successful in organizing youth, and these events held by the EVF clubs have astonishing attendance rates, the ratio of male to female being nearly equal every time. Children for once are excited and eager to talk about these issues. Through reading some of GEEP’s material it seems that becoming open about these issues at school has created an easier transition about discussing these in the home with parents, siblings, partners, etc. GEEP has also become successful in branching out to other organizations to receive funding but also spread their ideals to the greater population of Senegal. GEEP works closely with School Net Africa an organization that uses technology to facilitate education. These two organizations have become very triumphant in aiding each other’s efforts. Along with School Net Africa, GEEP also works with CNS, discussed earlier, in hopes of spreading their awareness again to the greater population of Senegal, not only to traditional middle and high schools. ANS-Alliance National Contre le SIDA an organization focusing only on HIV/AIDS, helps fund and works with GEEP on their events pertaining directly to HIV/AIDS.
As you can see GEEP has become very victorious in creating networks, which I believe is very important in the NGO world. It is all about working together to create a better environment for all. GEEP success rates with getting youth involved and active are truly commendable. And like every organization GEEP’s success could be far greater if some crucial barriers did not obstruct efforts.
Although while in GEEP’s headquarters at l’Ecole Normale Superior, you would think that the organization was very well funded, it indeed is not. GEEP is affected by underfunding just like numerous NGOs’; in fact GEEP only has two paid employees, the rest working from the goodness of their heart, right? Wrong again, although GEEP’s employees truly care about the issues and conditions of youth, what is their main objective working for the organization? Medemba an employee in charge of numerous EVF clubs stated in an interview “we love working here, but for many it is a resume builder, if a better higher paid opportunity comes along, we will not hesitate to take it.” While many would condemn one for saying that, I believe the employees are not to blame. Making a living is a top priority for nearly every person in the world, and when living in a developing country even more so, if these professors truly did not care, they would not haven given GEEP the time of day. Many of the employees at GEEP are middle school, high school, and college professors, who while not teaching, come to GEEP afterschool, on the weekends, and during vacations. They dedicate a great amount of their personal time and truly seem passionate about what they are doing, which I derived from interviews with Mdemba and Eleman. But again if a paid position opens up, it is what they will accept, as was shown through Eleman’s acceptance of a position with USAID and his resignation to GEEP.
Thus one of GEEP’s main problems is that employees are constantly coming and going. With that, means more money and resources needed to train each new employee that must be hired because another left. In effect GEEP lacks not only human resources but also adequate training for its staff. Though with my lack of knowledge I am unable to judge, I wonder if GEEP’s funding and resources could be used more wisely than they are being used currently. Along with those problems GEEP presently works in only four out of the fourteen regions of Senegal, and though aspiring to work in all, underfunding and lack of staff is encumbering its desires.
All of these issues left behind, I feel the greatest issue is that GEEP only works with youth who are in school, and once again the children on the street, the most vulnerable are left to perpetuate the cycle GEEP is trying to breach. Where are the resources for these children? Again this shows the underdevelopment of not only the organization but more so Senegal, why are their children on the street begging in the first place? Why is some sort of education whether it be job training or schooling, not required for all children? Will any of these organizations truly be able to succeed if youth who need them the most are not able to access them? These questions circle my mind, and will continue to until I take my experiences one step further and spend more time in this country and the world of NGO’s and governmental organizations. GEEP and the other organizations simply introduced me to the resources available to youth, and the problems that continue to exist.
My experience in Dakar was different than most. While everyone else was set to one internship, creating relationships with one group of people, and having a sort of structured project or end goal, I was able to experience of range of unique objectives, opinions, ideas, and organizations. What I was initially disappointed with turned out to be a learning experience unlike any other, where I was able to really get a feel for the non-governmental and governmental sector of Dakar’s infrastructure and organizations. I believe that I was able to experience both sides of the spectrum, and in the end walked away with a very valuable experience. While seeing the issues with these organizations was extremely frustrating at points, I also became enlightened to the goodness of people, and a culture that prides its self on helping one another. I learned a lot through this experience but I acknowledge that I am still ignorant and naïve to most aspects of Senegalese culture, life, and society and the only way to break that is to continue to experience and learn.