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In the month following the public conference fresh initiatives took off

For the school year 2016 - 2017, thirteen young children without a birth certificate, including Khadim Fall and Rama Sarr aged six, were not accepted at the time of registration. Thanks to interventions by members of the Club Mundus maris - Senegal, in collaboration with the directors of the schools of the municipality Hann Bel Air, they were finally accepted.

Indeed, already at the end of the previous school year, the Club Mundus maris - Senegal had recognised the best pupils and the work of the directors of the Bara Guèye A and B schools, Mr Sarr and Mrs Diaw respectively, who had systematically committed to facilitate the schooling of children without civil status since a while and had also promoted activities around World Oceans Day. We thank them for continuing their efforts and especially for helping some of these 13 children to attend school.

In the second week of November 2016, a delegation of managers of the soccer school "Maison foot", headed by Mr Ibrahima Wellé, visited the coordinator of Club Mundus maris - Senegal, Aliou Sall. The purpose of this visit was to see how this sporting institution can draw inspiration from our approach to organise issuance of birth certificates to young people, who aspire to upward social mobility through sport but do not have a civil status. Our first suggestion was to make them establish a first diagnosis of the situation: to assess the size of the problem. After an initial survey of the young people in training in this school, the managers have fallen from the clouds by realising the number of young people without the civil status. At a second meeting, they decided together with Mundus maris:

  • to convene a second public conference on the problems of young people without civil status, to which the Maison foot wants to invite, in addition to elected officials, officials from the Ministry of Sport. This conference is scheduled for the end of December 2016.
  • However, in view of the fact that the municipality has around 19 football schools, the officials of "Maison foot" have proposed (i) to hold a large meeting with all other soccer schools in the community and (ii) to set up a coordination committee for this conference, which will have members from the association of soccer school leaders of the municipality of Hann Bel Air. The aim is to demand from the authorities an extraordinary audience dedicated to young people who base their hope for their social rise in the practice of sport.

Watch this space for more!

The text and the photos are by the Club Mundus maris - Senegal.