Care & Community Volunteer Stories, Senegal

Care & Community in Senegal - Michelle Krech I am a Canadian university student in Global Development Studies and decided to fulfil my programme requirements for a work-study placement with Projects Abroad in St. Louis, Senegal. My project was Care and I worked at a local talibé (street children) centre, And Taxawu Talibé (ATT). I chose this placement because it offered me the chance to a) travel to Africa, the continent on which most of my academic and personal interest is focused; b) work with children who, despite representing our future, are often a marginalized group; and c) work in a French-speaking country where I could improve my French language skills.

Care & Community in Senegal - Amy Montgomery My day begins at 7.40am - alarm goes and I eat breakfast with the family. Breakfast is baguette and coffee, and we eat on the floor as with every meal. I leave the house at about 8.15am, and am lucky that my school is only a minute's walk away - already it's getting hot. The streets are busy - children on their way to school, adults on the way to work, taxis beeping and caleches (horse and carts) clattering along the road. I meet some of the children from my class on the way, they grab my hands and we walk together.