Students at the Foyer range from the late middle school years to high school age.
A dormitory facility for young women from rural villages who come to the city of Tambacounda to complete their secondary educations.
Les Foyers de Tambacounda is a beautiful facility in the city of Tambacounda that houses young women from the surrounding rural villages who come to this regional capital to attend high school. Le Korsa, in close partnership with director Maimouna Ka Sow, oversees operations and programming for the 144 young women who live there. Because the girls' villages do not have secondary schools, without Les Foyers these young women, aged 12-20, would have no further educational opportunities and likely face early marriage.
Inaugurated in November 2007, Les Foyers provides dormitory space, a computer lab, a library, a dining area, recreation spaces, an art studio, a kitchen garden, and a medicinal garden where the girls explore botany and health. The young women who live there attend the nearby public lycées or collèges (high schools and middle schools) in Tambacounda, while enjoying salubrious and happy living conditions that provide a strong sense of community, including cooking for one another each Sunday and sharing monthly cultural nights of music, dance, and film.
Why Les Foyers Exists
55% of adult women in Senegal struggle to read and write. 31% of women in Senegal (aged 20-24) were married before the age of 18.
Le Korsa funded much of the initial construction of Les Foyers through two generous grants from our benefactors. In 2009, we helped to nearly triple the building’s original 50-student capacity. Since then, we have worked closely with Madame Sow to introduce new programs, such as film screenings, job fairs, art courses, journalism trainings, workshops with artists-in-residence at Thread, and conferences with the Association des Juristes Sénégalaises, an all-female law association devoted to the rights of girls and women.
Thanks to the incredible environment fostered at the Foyer under Madame Sow's leadership, students there pass the national college entrance exam, known as the Bac, at a rate higher than the national average. With this influx of young women heading off to college in Dakar, Le Korsa has opened a satellite Foyer there. Because university housing in Dakar is notoriously hard to find, through the support of a donor Le Korsa has rented a home in a convenient location where the students can continue living and learning together.
Students in terminale, the equivalent of seniors, reading letters sent to them by their pen pals at Riverdale School of New York City. Le Korsa is always helping the Foyer students build connections across the world.
Former New York Times journalist Alan Riding has been teaching creative writing workshops to students at the Foyer each year.
Art classes at the Foyer take place on weekends during each month.
The campus is located within walking distance of two high schools.
Students work in the Foyer garden, which provides food for communal meals.
How You Can Help
Just $25.00 could help a Foyer student attend job trainings for a year.