A Promise Made in Dakar

When I was a little girl in Dakar, I couldn’t understand why my mother was so strict about homework. Every day after school, while our friends played outside, my two sisters and I sat with her, studying. It felt unfair. We had no social life. “All I ask of you is to do well in school.” What I didn’t understand then was that she was preparing us for a better future. “Financial independence is the key to freedom,” she told us, “and education is how you get there.” She worked relentlessly to pay our school fees. She traveled the world buying merchandise to sell to her well-off friends. She took government contracts that sent her into prisons to deliver goods. She climbed ladders while men stood watching, wondering "why?". She was a divorced mother of three, and she kept all of us in private school.

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Gallery photo, for News / Blog. From the nonprofit's images in the 48in48 portal.

The school across the street

My school had maintenance staff, well-trained and dedicated teachers, and every amenity a child could need. The elementary public school in our neighborhood had none of that. The children there had no restrooms. They walked to neighbors’ homes to use a bathroom or to ask for a drink of water. I played in that school’s yard and classrooms, and I saw the leaking roofs and the chipped paint. Same neighborhood, different school experiences, decided by whether a family could afford tuition. I saw the same disparities within my own family. One year, two of my cousins came to visit. As we talked about the upcoming school year, I realized they didn’t have backpacks. I begged my mother to buy some for them. That was the day I made my first promise to myself: I would help however I could.

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Across the ocean

That conviction followed me to the United States. Today I serve as Constituent Services Director and Policy Advisor to State Senator Cindy Friedman, where I have learned how change actually happens and how much it matters to be proactive in making it. I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Government from Smith College and a Master’s in Global Governance and Human Security from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Everything I learned pointed back to the same belief: education is how we build a safer, more stable world. The need is urgent. Walk into a classroom of ten Senegalese children, and four will not finish primary school. According to UNICEF Senegal, only 37 percent complete a full cycle of basic education. Behind every one of those numbers is a child as capable and deserving as I was, separated from opportunity not by ability, but by circumstance.

Kanam is that promise, taking shape

Education changed my life. It gave me not just opportunity, but security and stability. Kanam answers what I saw as a child: • Safe classrooms, because no child should learn under a leaking roof. • Nutritious meals, so hunger never gets in the way of learning. • Digital access and school supplies, the tools every child deserves. • Mentorship, so every child has someone who believes in them, the way my mother believed in me.

Our first project

École Oumar Ameth Wane: In the heart of Dakar, serving 256 students. It is the neighborhood elementary school I played in as a child. I invite you to join me in keeping this promise. It is a commitment to families who dream of a better future for their children, just as my mother once dreamed for me. Thank you for walking this path with us.