By French students from Brittany | Volunteers with Maison de la Gare
Our volunteer experience at Maison de la Gare
A class of French students from Brittany volunteered at Maison de la Gare in Saint Louis in early 2024. This is their account of their experience.
Who are we?
We are 17 students studying for the Advanced Technician’s Certificate - Agricultural Specialty at the Centre de Formation Technique par Alternance (Technical Training Center, CFTA) in Montfort-sur-Meu, Brittany, France.
As part of our training, we must carry out an Initiative and Communications Project. When the time for this collective project arrived, our thoughts turned to the possibility of a professional humanitarian mission with the aim of making ourselves useful and bringing our support and knowledge to a population in difficulty.
We contacted several organizations that could help us with this project, and GlobAlong was quick to support and encourage us. Our dream was about to become reality!
This is the first time that this kind of initiative has been proposed in our school. However, with the support of our teacher Nolwenn Guerin, we succeeded. It wasn't without its difficulties, as the administrative procedures were cumbersome.
Where there's a will, there's a way!
Let the adventure begin
Arriving in Senegal from Nantes for a two-week stay, we quickly lost our bearings (heat, noise, Wolof...). However, we were determined to savor every moment of this incredible adventure. We knew even then that this experience would stay with us forever.
It was in Saint Louis that we met the Maison de la Gare team. They put us at ease from the very first meal we shared. After a tour of Saint Louis and a visit to Maison de la Gare’s center, it was time to work with and for the talibé children.
We were able to take part in providing medical care for the talibé children and making bread for them, and to participate in educational activities, sports, and games.
We also accompanied some members of the team (Abou, Sulayman and El Hadj) on their night rounds, looking for children living in the street. We worked on renovation of daaras. And we led the creation of a vegetable garden within the center, contributing our knowledge and advice to Samba, Abou, Issa, and the others who will now continue this project.
In our various activities around the daaras, we noticed the differences between good and bad daaras, particularly in terms of living conditions. Some suffer from a total absence of hygiene, which increases the spread of diseases such as scabies.
It was particularly satisfying to be able to put our agricultural knowledge and skills to good use setting up the vegetable garden. It was challenging because of soil type, climate, soil condition (waste) and the fact that we were starting from scratch. But with our shared energy, our efforts paid off. The carrots are starting to sprout!
Thank you, Maison de la Gare!
Thanks to you, Issa, the team members and the talibé children. We had a unique and incredible experience, meeting some unforgettable people. The children's smiles will remain etched in our memories forever.
We would also like to thank CFTA for accepting our project, and especially Nolwenn for her unfailing support. Without her optimism, it would not have been possible. And we thank GlobAlong for guiding us and informing us about this mission.
Above all, we thank Maison de la Gare and its wonderful team for the work that they do every day, and for their kindness towards the talibé children!
We leave with heavy hearts, but this trip has changed us forever!
Our duty now is to raise awareness of this issue and to continue the work we've started so that, one day, all talibé children will be happy and want for nothing...
JEREJEF!
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