Community help for Gorée, Senegal
Donation protected
Goree Island, located off the coast of Senegal, is a small island with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants. Surrounded by deep blue waters and vibrant with colors, the island is beautiful— but unfortunately, its history is not.
From 1536 until the 1800s Goree was the center of the Portuguese, French, Dutch and British slave trade. The island’s geographic position made it easier for the slavers to control the captives who were held there; with 5kg iron balls chained to their legs, escape was impossible. More than two million slaves were involved in trade through Goree island. Because of its role in the slave trade, Unesco made Goree island a World Heritage site in 1978. (See more on the history here and here).
In June, a group of 12 volunteer students and teachers from St. Stephen’s International School in Rome, Italy, will travel to Goree. St. Stephens believes that community service encourages students to develop into more well rounded, thoughtful and caring global citizens.
Our goal is to interact with the small community of the island to support their children. With your donations, we will work with the islands’ residents to help them expand and maintain a vegetable garden for improved nutrition, build beneficial infrastructure in and outside of the school, provide the school with supplies such as sports equipment and academic materials, and help implement other community-identified projects.
Goree, like other parts of rural Senegal, faces many challenges.
Although stable and democratic, Senegal is one of the world’s least developed countries. The economy relies heavily on farming and fishing, both of which are vulnerable to climate change. The country suffers from persistent poverty, with 46.7 percent of the entire population living below the poverty rate. Outside of cities, in places like Goree, poverty rates are particularly high. Overall, 17 percent of people are food insecure, and again in many rural places, malnutrition rates are very high. 15.5 percent of Senegalese children under five years of age are underweight. Most kids only go to school for nine years, and the national literacy rate is just 57.7%.
It is our hope and ambition to not only learn from the people of Goree but help them address challenges in their local community. Any donation you can make, large or small, we’ll put to good use.
Thank you for your support!
For more information see the Senegal service trip website here or contact us here:
nikosDOTkourousATsssromeDOTcom
noahDOTgalloATsssromeDOTcom
From 1536 until the 1800s Goree was the center of the Portuguese, French, Dutch and British slave trade. The island’s geographic position made it easier for the slavers to control the captives who were held there; with 5kg iron balls chained to their legs, escape was impossible. More than two million slaves were involved in trade through Goree island. Because of its role in the slave trade, Unesco made Goree island a World Heritage site in 1978. (See more on the history here and here).
In June, a group of 12 volunteer students and teachers from St. Stephen’s International School in Rome, Italy, will travel to Goree. St. Stephens believes that community service encourages students to develop into more well rounded, thoughtful and caring global citizens.
Our goal is to interact with the small community of the island to support their children. With your donations, we will work with the islands’ residents to help them expand and maintain a vegetable garden for improved nutrition, build beneficial infrastructure in and outside of the school, provide the school with supplies such as sports equipment and academic materials, and help implement other community-identified projects.
Goree, like other parts of rural Senegal, faces many challenges.
Although stable and democratic, Senegal is one of the world’s least developed countries. The economy relies heavily on farming and fishing, both of which are vulnerable to climate change. The country suffers from persistent poverty, with 46.7 percent of the entire population living below the poverty rate. Outside of cities, in places like Goree, poverty rates are particularly high. Overall, 17 percent of people are food insecure, and again in many rural places, malnutrition rates are very high. 15.5 percent of Senegalese children under five years of age are underweight. Most kids only go to school for nine years, and the national literacy rate is just 57.7%.
It is our hope and ambition to not only learn from the people of Goree but help them address challenges in their local community. Any donation you can make, large or small, we’ll put to good use.
Thank you for your support!
For more information see the Senegal service trip website here or contact us here:
nikosDOTkourousATsssromeDOTcom
noahDOTgalloATsssromeDOTcom
Organizer and beneficiary
Nikos Kourous
Organizer
Rome, LZ
George Alfred Kourous
Beneficiary