Senegal is located on the Western coast of the African continent, bordering Mauritania, Mali, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and the Gambia. While Senegal is one of the most stable and successful democracies in Africa, its population of 16 million remains impoverished and undereducated. More than one third of the population lives below the poverty line, and 75 percent of families suffer from chronic poverty.
Poverty and food insecurity are particularly prevalent in rural areas where most of the population rely on farming and fishing, which are regularly threatened by inclement weather like drought and other climate changes. Our projects in Senegal have centered around the city of Mbour on Senegal’s central coast.
In 2000, Mbour was a small fishing town with a population of approximately 50,000. Twenty years later, Mbour is home to over 700,000 people, who are mainly internal migrants from rural and desert communities fleeing desertification and searching for economic opportunity in an urban setting. The immense population growth has led to shortage of schools and resources in Mbour.