News & Blog: Stories from Kanam
Welcome to our blog, where we share updates, stories, and insights about the children, schools, and communities we serve in Senegal. See how your support is making a difference every day.
Latest Updates
Our First Campaign: Chalk and a Printer for 256 Students!
When we first called Mr. Mandene Diouf, principal of École Oumar Ahmet Wane, to ask about the school's needs, his priorities were simple: chalk to supplement what the school already has, and a printer with paper because their old one no longer functioned properly. Each quarter, the school had to ask every student to contribute the equivalent of fifty cents so it could print the requirements set by the Ministry of Education. With a new printer and enough paper for the school year, the school no longer has to ask. We recently delivered all. Unlike in the US, the school year in Senegal starts in October, and this year it was delayed a week when torrential rain flooded the schools.
Meet the Artist behind our logo
Amadou BOYE, known as ZEUS, is a self-taught artist from Saint-Louis, Senegal, who transforms waste into artistic treasures. For more than twenty years, he has breathed new life into discarded objects, creating powerful pieces that are as ecological as they are socially impactful. His studio, "L'Or dure," reflects his philosophy of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. Inspired by his uncle Macodou KÉBÉ, renowned for his sculptures made from cans, ZEUS carries on the family legacy while developing his own style. Vibrant, stimulating, and often layered with poetic or philosophical texts, his work addresses profound issues such as clandestine migration, women's rights, and the struggles of street children. Through recycling workshops with talibés, ZEUS shows that art can bring about significant social change. Talibés are children, mostly boys, sent to Quranic schools called daaras in Senegal to study the Quran under a teacher known as a marabout. While this is a longstanding religious tradition, many talibés in cities like Saint-Louis are forced to beg in the streets each day and often endure hunger, harsh conditions, and abuse. Kanam chose ZEUS to design its logo because of the important work he does with the talibés children in Saint-Louis.
