We seek to empower grassroot community development through sustainable strategies and hands-on educational techniques, grounded in principles of action research.
Health sensitization focus group (left) and women learning food preservation (right) in Guédé Chantier Eco-village as part of our sponsored projects and academic courses.
Although many non-government organizations (NGOs) work to promote local village empowerment, our work is distinguished by the education support we apply to our programs, and the diversity of individuals that participate in the process.
Each program is grounded in action & operational research methodology. Rather than simply developing projects to benefit villagers, we work hand-in-hand with villagers to identify needs and develop solutions. We continually identify needs, implement projects, reflect on success, and improve based on evaluations in a fluid and cyclical process. We treat every project as a teaching program in action research and program design, ensuring that locals have the skills and resources to continue their projects. To read more about our action research approach, see our educational philosophy or resources page.
We create a cross-cultural environment, reaching out to international and Senegalese staff, faculty, students, researchers, villagers, and ministry personnel in the empowerment process. Each member of our team benefits from the cross-cultural environment and the different skills brought to projects. At the same time, the group as a whole deliberately seeks solutions within the different cultural paradigms of the participants. In this way, we aim to create a new understanding of development for all of our participants.
To participate in our team, see our page on getting involved.
Not only do we apply action research methods to designing projects, but also we apply these methods to our organizational design and evaluation of our success. We meet regularly to evaluate the quality of our educational programs and the best way to structure our organization. As a result, our NGO has evolved over time and split apart into separate self-sustaining NGOs, about which you can learn more from our partners and our history pages.
"The greatest strength of the program was the people to people and cross-cultural connections that it facilitated. I learned and experienced the real Senegal. I lived it. It gave me my own time to reflect and think and experience Senegal. I also made life long friends and family."
- Student evaluation, spring 2009 sustainable development study abroad program