Friends of Guéoul

A nonprofit organization

$33,237 raised by 101 donors

100% complete

$30,000 Goal


Friends of Guéoul enables female Senegalese students to achieve economic & life successes by creating access to education through annual scholarships and learning enrichment programs to pursue their education through high school and beyond. 

This year, Diodio Diop, one of our first scholarship recipients from 2005, graduated from College! She is now a midwife and can help support her family and provide an education for her future children. This is exactly our goal!

We also celebrate the enormous accomplishment that TWENTY Friends of Guéoul boursieres are going to University or trade school this coming school year. Not only have they stayed in school, they have SUCCEEDED at school. And, we welcome 14 new boursieres to first grade - students we hope will stick with us for the entirety of their school careers. That brings us to a total of 200 students who will get an education because of our efforts this school year.





Many families in Senegal live on less than $2 per day. The impacts of poverty create intergenerational challenges in which families may have difficulty affording the minimal costs of living - let alone the cost of school supplies and associated fees. The challenges are even greater for female students. Culturally-entrenched gender discrimination holds an impactful voice where families often prioritize educating sons over daughters. 

Each year, Friends of Guéoul welcomes fourteen new boursières who have been identified by a local committee of educational professionals (The Association of Parents of Schools) who exhibit financial need to stay in or attend school. Friends of Guéoul welcomes students in primary school and sustains their educational needs through annual scholarships of $150 USD. This amount is designated to offset the cost of school supplies, uniforms, teacher fees, and other associated costs.  

Friends of Guéoul not only provides scholarships, we also offer educational enrichment opportunities through a FoG program we call Noos Club. This translates into “fun club” in Wolof - the traditional language of Senegal. Noos club offers ESL, computer skills, regular tutoring, and more!


Scholarships 

Annually, FoG welcomes 14 new boursières with a scholarship to sustain their educational goals through high school.  

Noos Club

The after-school program that houses academic enrichment opportunities. Noos Club translates to Fun Club from Wolof! 

E-Learning 

FoG operates an e-learning classroom for boursières to learn computer skills and reinforce core subjects such as Math, Science, and Languages.

ESL Classes

As Senegal now requires English language for university admittance, FoG offers ESL teacher trainers and classes for students that will prepare them for University!



The numbers show it is working. 

We have seen a positive trend in test scores & class rank among Friends of Guéoul scholars since the programs were launched in 2005! Now in its 18th year, Friends of Guéoul is supporting over 240 students. TWENTY former boursières are currently attending University in Senegal and TWO of our first scholarship recipients from 2005, graduated this year from College!



In 2022, we finalized non-profit status within the country of Senegal and have since established an almost all female Board of Directors . The Senegalese board will identify ways to grow our impact, create new sources of revenue, grow autonomy, and continue to keep even more girls in school!

Want to read more about us? Please click on this link for our Annual Report

Our People

I’m Cheikh Makhfou Diop. I have been working with Friends of Guéoul for over 14 years. Together we have created projects that have directly impacted the education in Guéoul across all levels: elementary, secondary and high-school. Even university.

It is a great pleasure for me to work with an NGO such as Friends of Guéoul.

My experience within this structure has taught me about sharing; about understanding students beyond the physical presence of learners in the classroom—that there are many more things to discover about families if you want to study the causes of lack of performance for some students. We learn where to put our efforts by having conversations with the mothers, grandmothers, and sometimes fathers too.

“A hungry belly has no ear”: This is a part of the understanding of Friends of Guéoul. We try to relieve parents who hustle just to meet the daily needs (food) of the family by taking charge of their girls’ schooling which increases their chances to stay at school, to have good results and advance in their studies. 

This noble mission really has affected me and changed my own dreams of social assistance by the help of Friends of Guéoul. At the end of each year, we have all the pleasure to see girls passing in their elementary, secondary and high school exams. It is a wonderful time to celebrate. 

Best regards,

Cheikh Makhfou Diop
Field Director, Senegal

Success!

Nogaye Diop, one of our first boursieres, graduated college this spring with a  degree in IT Management!


Mission

Friends of Guéoul enables female students in Senegal to achieve economic and life successes by creating access to education through annual scholarships and learning enrichment opportunities to pursue education through high school and beyond.

Background Statement

When one looks at a lifetime of events, all the coincidences and serendipities take shape. Time reveals that circumstances could never have turned out any other way.

In 1990, co-founder Judy Beggs embarked on a new journey that took her to Guéoul. She was welcomed into a family and over the next two years, she created a special bond that would last a lifetime.

Initially, Judy was working on a Rural Health Education project and picked up Wolof and French. But it was heard she learned that many girls were not attending school. Once she returned to the U.S., Judy began supporting a few children of the family she stayed with to attend school.

After hearing of Judy’s efforts, John Montaña (Co-Founder) said, “Let’s keep a bunch of them in school!” and that is where Friends of Guéoul was born.

Together John and Judy saw the importance and the opportunity to promote education for girls who needed it most. Over the following years, Friends of Guéoul flourished and girls began to gain access to education. Today, we are still growing and are thrilled to be a part of this work to this day.

Organization Data

Summary

Organization name

Friends of Guéoul

other names

FoG

Year Established

2005

Tax id (EIN)

83-0430609

Category

Education, International, Foreign Affairs & National Security, Youth Development

Organization Size

Small Organization

Address

P.O. Box 6801
Denver, CO 80206

Service areas

Denver County, CO, US

SN

Phone

720-254-4049

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