Restoring a Child’s Life: Services and Programs

FOS and MDG take concrete actions every day to support children in need. Through their partnership, they offer programs across six key areas: education, nutrition, healthcare and hygiene, sports, training, and psychosocial support. These programs are built around what children deserve and what they need to grow, heal, and move forward.

Most people picture retirement as a chance to slow down. For Ndaraw Diop, it lasted less than a day.

Less than 24 hours after retiring from a 38-year career as director of the government agency responsible for vulnerable children in Saint-Louis, Senegal, Ndaraw was back at work — this time as a volunteer with Maison de la Gare (MDG), a local NGO that supports the city’s most at-risk children, known as talibés.

A New Mission: Bringing Microfinance to Saint-Louis

When Ndaraw learned that Friends of Senegal (FOS) was partnering with Maison de la Gare to launch a zero-interest microloan program for older talibés and other vulnerable men and women in Saint-Louis, he didn’t hesitate.

The program was designed to give the poorest residents of the community interest-free loans so they could start or grow small businesses — a lifeline for families who had never had access to traditional banking or credit. Ndaraw understood the stakes better than most: he had spent nearly four decades watching families in his community struggle to meet basic needs, trapped in a cycle of poverty passed from one generation to the next.

A trained sociologist and published researcher on poverty in Senegal, Ndaraw is one of the most respected figures in Saint-Louis. Walk the streets with him and it’s easy to mistake him for a local official — he’s greeted at every corner, always ready with a smile or a joke.

Despite having no background in finance or business, Ndaraw stepped forward immediately: “I want to manage the microfinance program.” His determination was enough to earn him the role — and the results since then speak for themselves.