A #GivingTuesday for Senegal

This is the fourth year in which we celebrate Giving Tuesday and is the first in which we give direct support to a social cause.

It is usually announced with the hashtag #GivingTuesday to this global movement that wants to encourage and multiply the good actions of people. Sharing and disseminating solidarity initiatives on this special Tuesday, is more than an alternative to the consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday, and that is why NGOs also need to receive funding.

The objective is, therefore, to dedicate a day around the world to celebrate the action of giving:  food, money, time (volunteering), second-hand objects, etc.

The NGO of Architecture Without Borders (ASF) has been working in Senegal since 2001, mainly thanks to the work of the ASF Madrid and ASF Levante teams. These two decades of field work has allowed the entity to know much better the human, social and cultural factors of Senegal, adapting the projects to the exact framework of each activity, from the correct choice of the materials needed for construction to integration of the projects by the local population.

As always, all ASF projects are based on the guarantee of sustainability and direct cooperation with local authorities.

The locality of this part of the African continent with which the ASF team has had the most connection is Joal-Fadiouth, a town south of Dakar, in an estuary of the "Petite-Côte" that hinders the creation of infrastructure by continuous tides and floods of the bay.

The work carried out in this community includes areas such as gender issues, hygienic-sanitary infrastructure, health, economic development and education. In this area, the latest project of which ASF is now doing the crowdfunding campaign.

The demographic explosion of Joal-Fadiouth has developed new areas in neighborhoods that lack basic services for large sectors of the population, and in this case, for the younger sectors. This year's idea is to improve and expand the Center of Intermediate Education (CEM).

The new center will accommodate 4 courses, with 4 classes each for a total of 1000 students. The technical program of Architecture without Borders in this CEM will encompass these points:

·          16 classrooms in total

·         Teachers room with dining room

·         Administration room

·         Toilets, something extremely important for the privacy of students and teachers and that public centers do not always have.

·         Library with computer room and study room

The ASF campaign in this center is still open and will end with the final creation of an inclusive and safe CEM, improving the quality of education in all its facets for the students of all the peripheral neighborhoods of Joal-Fadiouth.

Any contribution is welcome, for this #GivingTuesday and as for the next days when the campaign will remain open.