Supporting the educational aspirations of girls and young women in rural Senegal.
11/25/2025
With one week to go before GIVING TUESDAY, I hope you'll consider supporting BSEI in its mission to help girls and women in rural Senegal realize their educational aspirations- like the girls pictured from the village of Mbettite. Because of your help, each one of them can continue their education.
06/30/2025
The main focus of my current trip to Senegal is to establish partnerships. It has been a whirlwind of meeting after meeting. My two latest were with Marie Siby Faye of the Ministry of Education and the Mayor of Sebikhotane Alioune Pouye.
Both meetings hold the promise of expanding our programs with an emphasis on our Pen Pal Cultural Exchange and English Immersion initiative in conjunction with the Ivy League School and Day Camp!
06/30/2025
Back in Senegal for several meetings, and some potentially exciting news coming in the next week!
The first meeting took place last Tuesday. I went to the town of Bargny to meet the two girls who were chosen this year to attend the Ivy League Day Camp in Smithtown, NY, as part of BSEI's Pen Pal Cultural Exchange and English Language Immersion Program. The girls, Fatou and Fatoumata will spend three weeks at the camp having fun, making new friends, and improving their English language skills.
I also had the wonderful opportunity to see the three girls who participated in the 2023 program, Aissatou, Sobel, and Nafi.
Also pictured are Fatou and Fatoumata's parents.
03/08/2025
Welcome to the Baobab Senegal Education Initiative's sixth annual "3/8 to 3/26 Fundraiser." Starting today, March 8, in honor of International Women's Day, this fundraiser goes until March 26, the day I met Saly Fongoro in Lac Rose, Senegal in 2019. Saly, as you probably know by now, was the inspiration for BSEI.
Instead of a formal fundraiser, I am asking supporters to purchase our book "The Senegal Food and Culture Word Puzzle & Activity Book," the sales of which benefit BSEI.
If you'd like to purchase a book and support BSEI's mission to support the educational aspirations of women and girls from rural Senegal, you can do so through lulu using the link.
The Senegal Food and Culture Word Puzzle & Activity Book Join us on an incredible journey across Senegal! This book features word searches, matching puzzles, activities, recipes, and more in English, French & Wolof! Have fun learning about the rich history and culinary traditions of Senegal. Book sales benefit the Baobab Senegal Education Initiative. BSEI...
02/28/2025
To all Muslims throughout the world and my friends in Morocco, Senegal, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and the US.... Ramadan Mubarak!
02/12/2025
Event Invites and Zoom Links Coming Soon!
02/09/2025
SAVE THE DATE: FEBRUARY 23 BOOK LAUNCH!
LOOKOUT FOR LINKS AND INVITES
01/27/2025
From now until January 31st get 15% off when you purchase The Senegal Food and Culture Word Puzzle & Activity Book at lulu using the code BOOKSALES15. Just click on the link.
Proceeds from sales go to support BSEI's mission.
https://www.lulu.com/shop/jessica-haines-and-ryan-misler-and-tamiza-teja/the-senegal-food-and-culture-word-puzzle-activity-book/paperback/product-7kezw95.html?q=Jessica+Haines&page=1&pageSize=4
BSEI’s Evolving Mission: The Baobab Senegal Education Initiative Inc.(BSEI) supports the empowerment of girls and young women from rural Senegal in realizing their educational aspirations at all levels. Like many other developing nations around the world, Senegal faces challenges that hinder girls’ access to education. According to Aminata Ndiaye, buildOn Education Coordinator in Senegal “This is often because of the distance they have to travel to school and extreme poverty. Often times parents will prioritize sending their boys to schools and keep girls at home to clean and help out in the home,” (buildOn). Despite the government’s significant progress in achieving parity with boys at the elementary level, the conditions mentioned by Ms. Ndiaye prevent many girls from completing their education, (Borgen Project). To put this in perspective, while the Gross Enrollment Rate (GER) for girls at the primary level in 2016 was 87.9%, only 63.5% completed primary school. That percentage drops to 57.9% when we look at the GER at the lower secondary level, (Borgen Project). The discrepancy in gender equity is most evident as women make the transition from the secondary to the tertiary level where the gross enrollment of female students was only 60% that of males as recently as 2017. The effects of this discrepancy are clearly seen in the gap in literacy rates between genders with women above 15 years of age at about 40% and men at about 65%, (UNESCO).
Goals: At this early stage, BSEI will provide support for Ecol Elementaire Publique: Niaga Peulh-Lac Rose, a primary school outside of Dakar. For the upcoming 2019-2020 school year, the target will be the first and second-year level students. BSEI's support will expand each year thereafter as students move through their six years at the primary level. At that point BSEI's focus will expand to include facilitating girls’ transition to the lower secondary level (middle school) with the goal of raising the percentage who complete their primary education and enroll in the lower secondary program. In the near future, BSEI will broaden its purview to support rural primary education on a wider scale.
The five-year goal, then, is to begin supporting the educational needs of young women at the secondary level and eventually provide assistance beyond that, not only for women who want to attend university but also for adults in order to address the gender literacy gap. The ultimate dream of BSEI, 10 years down the line, is to establish a private primary years day school and a secondary years' boarding school for girls at no cost thereby facilitating these intelligent and ambitious young women's access to higher education. The social and economic benefits of girls education and higher literacy rate in developing countries are well established, (Global Partnership for Education ).
Our Story: The idea for BSEI began to take shape during a recent trip to Senegal. Fulfilling a two decades old dream I traveled to Senegal this past March. While there, I met the beautiful girl you see in the pictures below; her name is Sally. While my friend Elie and I were visiting Lake Retba (Loc Rose) outside of Dakar, Sally approached us and I gave her 1000 CFA, about the equivalent of $2. A few minutes later her mother came up to us and asked if the money was for all of the children or just her daughter. Through our guide/translator, Landry, I told her that it was just for her daughter. Not sure how to interpret the interaction, Landry explained to me that the women who work hauling salt from the boats on the lake (see the pictures below), make about 5-6 Euros per day; I had apparently given Sally a significant amount. Looking at the other kids there that day, and reflecting on what Sally's mom had asked, I decided I could and would do something for all of them. As an educator, with over 10 years of teaching experience at the primary, secondary, and university levels in addition to my years of living in Morocco first as a Peace Corps Volunteer (1997-1999) and later as a Fulbright Research Fellow (2011), I was familiar with some of the issues of educational inequality with which many developing countries struggle. My thoughts turned to finding a way to support the education of girls like Sally and young women in rural areas of Senegal. The idea for BSEI began to take shape.