November 20th was Universal Children’s Day!

I’d like to tell you about an elementary school where I have some friends in Dakar, Senegal. I went to see them and they introduced me to their teacher, Aminata, and I even sat in on a conjugation lesson with the big kids!
The school’s name is La Clémence, and it’s in ZAC Mbao, a suburb of Dakar. It was founded in October, 2010 and has both lower grades and upper grades. The students have nice uniforms, I’d love to have one, too! There are lots of different subjects, even English and Arabic, along with catechism, first aid, computers and technical manual skills. When I was there, the students were drying pieces of cloth they had painted on, on the school’s roof. They were going to make them into things like bread bags. They were really nice!
The big kids were very well-behaved and working hard on their lessons. But what I liked best was playing with the little kids – playing educational games, the teacher said!
Aminata, who is also the principal, explained to me that the school’s goal is to provide a better education to the children of Senegal, especially children in this area that doesn’t have lots of schools yet. The principal would like to continue developing her school to improve the classes some more by, for example, finding partners or twinning with a European school.
I spent a terrific day at La Clémence and I’d love to go back! I already told you I loved going to school, didn’t I?

Mamie Ndiaye
Text from Aminata Dieng

Contact the school’s principal:
Aminata Dieng
Groupe scolaire La Clémence
Cité SOCIDAK 55, ZAK MBAO
Dakar, Senegal
Phone numbers: +221 77 641 90 22 or +221 77 614 46 90