2016: The New School
After completing the roofs, we set our sights on an even bigger challenge—constructing a brand-new school building for the village. During our visit, we were struck by the overcrowded conditions: students from kindergarten through 8th grade were crammed into a single small building, and older students had to travel over 70 kilometers to attend high school in a different village. This was vastly different from our own schools, where students are divided by age group into separate facilities. Research shows that smaller class sizes improve learning outcomes, so we knew that creating a new space for younger students would make a huge difference.
This project was our largest and most ambitious endeavor yet, both in terms of scale and cost. Building a new school required extensive planning, fundraising, and coordination with the local school. It took longer than any of our previous initiatives, but that only made its completion more rewarding. The new building provides plenty of space for kindergarten through 5th graders, leaving the original building for the middle school students. This allows for smaller, more focused classes, and gives teachers the room they need to foster more individualized learning.
Since its completion, the school has seen a dramatic improvement in student performance, and the increased number of high-achieving students even led the Senegalese government to build a high school in Medina Wandifa. Now, children of all ages can attend school in their home village, eliminating the need for long commutes. This project transformed the community, and seeing its lasting impact makes all the hard work worth it.
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