The International Foundation has awarded a $25,000 grant to Andando! The purpose of this grant is to build an innovative STEM focused school garden at the newly constructed Keur Soce High School, which we finished building earlier this year. The International Foundation funds “US-based non-profit organizations who partner with poor communities in the developing world to improve their health, education and incomes, while strengthening local capacity to sustain their benefits.”
The first photo of the fully complete Keur Soce High School. These 8 classrooms serve over 1,000 students who previously had to travel far distances to continue their education or, more commonly, had to drop out of school due to a lack of resources.
This grant will help to pay for the construction of a substantial one-acre teaching garden that will be used to facilitate practical lessons in biological sciences, mathematics, and business skills while substantially improving the food security of the student population.
Selecting a site with community leaders for the first-ever teaching garden which will be incorporated into the new Keur Soce High School.
In a first for any high school in Senegal the garden will also incorporate an integrated aquaculture fish farming system. Fish are a staple of Senegalese cuisine and increased dry land fish farming has the potential to greatly benefit inland economies and food security without contributing to over-fishing of coastal water or polluting watersheds.
During a hands-on training, participants in our aquaculture project learn how to assess fish for health and growth.
Andando currently operates 38 women’s cooperative gardens in Senegal which produce over 500,000 lbs. of organic produce each year. As with our other gardens we will provide the school with a trained local garden technician to help to establish the garden and fully integrate it into school curriculum.
“The International Foundation’s support will help students at Keur Soce High school to gain invaluable practical experience and learn skills that will set them apart as they continue their educational and professional careers.”
Madame Marone and her students in one of the new classrooms at Keur Soce High School.
Indeed, due to Andando’s continued investment in this school the Education Ministry has decided to designate Keur Soce High School as a science academy that will feed directly into a new Agricultural University in the regional capital Kaolack. Andando is proud to be partnering with such prestigious institutions to substantially increase the quality of science education in the region for years to come.
Andando is a US-based non-profit organization that works to alleviate poverty through community development in rural Senegal. Learn more about Andando at www.andando.org.
About The International Foundation:
The International Foundation was created in 1948. Like other early foundations, our purpose was “to promote, foster, encourage and further non-profit, non-sectarian and non-political educational, medical, philanthropic, humanitarian, scientific and literary enterprises of all kinds.”
In its many years of grant making, the International Foundation has worked with thousands of US-based 501(c)3 organizations to bring knowledge, resources and compassion to individuals and communities around the world. Our strategic mission has evolved in concert with the exponential growth in the United States non-profit sector and rapid evolution of the discipline of international development.
“At the core of our mission is the concept that charity alone isn’t enough. We must take charity to a level that delivers measurable and sustainable change that is “owned” by the project participants and that leaves broad, lasting benefits. We prioritize the principles of self-determination, local engagement, and sustainability, both as means to and ends of our philanthropic goals. More and more, this requires grant-maker and grantee to share a common view of the challenges, optimal solutions, and ultimate objectives of our partnering efforts.”