This KS program, implemented by AMCRE, was started in 2003 and has since been the Kemper Foundation’s most important program with 70% of our efforts. Many deaf children live throughout the country and do not have access to national education. Under the responsibility of the parents, the KS helps with the opening of a so-called “foyer” (classroom) near their place of residence. 

As a first step, we ask parents to set up an association recognized by the local government. They must then find an existing location that can be set up as a teaching space (possibly an available classroom) and appoint a volunteer in their community who can teach their deaf children 5 x 4 hours a week.

If these conditions are met, these volunteers are trained by AMCRE and familiarized with sign language. Over the years, more than 90 volunteers have been trained and more than 40 foyers have been opened. The number of “active” foyers and monitors to whom KS provides a modest stipend and who are supervised by AMCRE varies per year because the number of registered deaf students is variable. In the 2022-2023 school year, 16 foyers were active with 21 monitors and 198 deaf students, of which 21 were girls. 

The integration of students who leave the Foyer is achieved by the parents’ association through small contracts with local employers who accept deaf people into their workplace and thus provide further training. The local parents’ associations have joined the network “Réseau de Foyers de Sourds” (RFS), which represents their interests nationally. 

Over the years, KS, AMCRE, “monitors”, parents, craftsmen, employers and RFS have, with their joint efforts, given more than 600 deaf children an independent place in the community. Together we want to continue our efforts.

The concrete example of Mbaye Sene 

The mother of Mbaye Sene, a deaf boy in Gandiaye, went with her son to the primary school where her other children also went to enroll him. Her son was refused entry there. Mbaye stayed with his mother while her other children went to school and they cried together. His uncle went to Dakar for advice at a Catholic school. The sisters there sent him to Jan. There he met the AMCRE team and learned about the KS program for the deaf. 

He returned to the village and created an “association of parents with deaf children” locally. A young woman, Mane Ndao, was found who was initiated into sign language in one of the first KS courses. There was a shed near her house in Gandiaye where the association started with a foyer for the deaf. When this shed was hit by a heavy rain shower and became unusable, the “foyer” moved to the corner of a shop that was set up for that purpose. Mane did not give up and became known outside her village. 

This commitment from a go-getter encouraged the KS to build a model Foyer for the deaf. The municipality made a site available and the UNESCO Center of the Netherlands (UCN) made a donation that supplemented the KS. Mbaye Sene and other deaf children also received primary education. Now he has his own chicken farm and also keeps sheep. He takes his products to the market in a cart pulled by a donkey. He has never strayed far from home and is now fully integrated into the community as an adult.

We want many more deaf children to have such an opportunity.