A new brochure about our KS program for the deaf
On April 2, just before Senegal’s national holiday on April 4, a new president was installed. It was an exciting battle that was won by a wide margin by the opposition: Diomaye Faye became president and Ousmane Sonko became prime minister. This team won with the promise to ‘clean house’. To help them with this, KS once again brought its original commitment to all deaf people with the commitment of parents to the attention. After more than twenty years of voluntary commitment, this can now be done by presenting the results achieved in a new version of its brochure.
This provides figures for the end of the 2023-2024 school year as follows:
In addition to the developed and regularly updated curriculum, KS has now assisted 31 local parent associations in the establishment and management of 16 operational Foyers, of which 5 are Foyers with two classes (beginners and advanced). A total of 87 ‘monitors’ have been trained and 870 deaf children (38% girls) have attended the Foyers, the first generation of whom are now functionally integrated into the world of work.
Proposals at the KS Annual Meeting in Schilde
On September 29, the entire board of KS gathered at Bert Schortinghuis in Schilde. The relationship with AMCRE, the Network RFS of Foyers and the government was discussed. For about 20 years, KS and its partners have successfully developed a strategy that opens up access to a full role in the community for all deaf people, through functional literacy, if their parents give the first impetus. In order to continue this development, the local community and the national government must take over the KS subsidies so that it can continue to work on educational methods and guidance.
The municipality of ‘Tivaouane Peulh” has divided Jan’s land in the “Niayes” for housing. They named this land of over 2 ha: “Lotissement Kemper”. Part of it remains Jan’s property and is allocated for “Equipment”. Jan proposes to build a social “Kempercentrum” here at his own expense, which he will then transfer to the foundation. This centre, with a community room and a library, will not only be able to supervise K1 tasks for the deaf, but will also be able to contribute to the K2 programme ‘better life with acquired knowledge’.
Further training of monitors and consultation with parents’ associations
After the first refresher training of ‘monitors’ this year in Saint Louis, the activities were concluded in December with a second refresher training of ‘monitors’ and a consultation with parents of deaf students in Dakar. Foyers from Dakar and the west of Senegal participated in this. The teaching material was expanded this year with sign language used by craftsmen in the business world where some 33 deaf people (recent alumni of our Foyers) found a job.
