Diapalante Community Education Centre, Senegal

This year power cuts are a regular occurance. The computers are holted instantly but often other activities can carry on as normal. Here is an evening English lesson using mobile phones as torches!

February was a month of visitors here at Diapalante. Polly’s parents were the first, arriving at the end of January. Shona, Polly’s mum, spent a productive Saturday morning at the centre, using her skills as a fashion designer to help fix one of the members sewing machines. She also tested her times tables with some

Local craftsmen in Sénégal often use weaving to create their wares which they then sell in artisinal villages. Inspired by this, Diapalante explored weaving and complementary colours in a maker-day lesson. To start off with, each person chose a square sheet to act as the base colour. We folded this in half and cut vertical

One of the things Diapalante prides itself on most is its accessibilty to people from all walks of life. For most young adults, writing an application can be a daunting task. It can be the make or break for getting into university or applying for a job. Several members have been given the significant opportunity

This month’s theme is Art and Culture, so the team at Diapalante have had the opportunity to unleash their inner creativity. The activity we used to kick start this month’s theme was exploring wax resist. The aim was to see how oil-based materials resist water-based materials. First we used wax crayons to draw out our

The theme for January here at Diapalante centre was sport, and despite (or perhaps because of) the cold, the members approached it with enthusiasm. We kicked off the month with help from some guests from Joal who had come up for the weekend. Members of all ages came to the pitches of the local middle

We’ve had a busy time here at Diapalante Centre, especially in the library. Being in charge of the library, I get to see the full extent of the members that come to Diapalante. We have books for all ages and abilities, in both English and French (and some in both), so the library is accessible

Diapalante Centre saw out the end of 2017 with a bang, hosting our very own Talent Show! Held over an evening, it was an amazing opportunity to showcase the members’ talents outside the academic. The members  were buzzing with energy all week as the various acts practiced both in and out of the centre. Ranging

After a few months of staring at boring beige walls, in the computer room we spent an evening making colourful posters on the parts of the computer. Diapalante had a mini competition for an informative poster on the parts of the computer, with the opportunity to win a bouncy ball. This went down a treat,

Here at Diapalante Centre we had an amazing – and educational –  festive period! We managed to link December’s theme of Christmas in to a variety of different subjects, from English to science and even maths! The month started off with some paper crafts for some of the younger members. They tested their folding abilities