History

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, founder Judy Beggs shut down her life in Colorado, and her law practice of 16 years to join the Peace Corps. Her assignment brought her to Guéoul, where she joined the family of Fatou Sylla, grandmother of six grandchildren. Over her two-year assignment, Judy grew close to the family while working on her Rural Health Education project and picked up Wolof and French. And after returning to the U.S., Judy supported a few of the family’s kids attending school.

After hearing of Judy”s efforts, John Montaña (Co-Founder) said, “Let’s keep a bunch of them in school!” And voila! The story begins. Fifteen years later, Friends of Guéoul supports over 160 boursiéres with scholarships, a computer classroom, after-school enrichment and ESL programs. We are deeply grateful for all of the support that our donors have given over the years to make this dream possible.

Living the Mission

Since 2005, Friends of Guéoul has been actively creating change within the community of Guéoul, Senegal by empowering the next generation of female leaders and scholars. We aim to create access to education through scholarships and educational enrichment opportunities.

Unique Challenges

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.

The Basics

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 $100 USD. This amount is designated to offset the cost of school supplies, uniforms, teacher fees and other associated costs.

Friends of Guéoul does not only provide scholarships – we also offer educational enrichment opportunities through a FoG program we call Noos Club! This translates in to “fun club” in Wolof. Noos club offers ESL, computer skills, regular tutoring and more.

The numbers show that our efforts ARE working. We have seen a positive trend of test scores & class rank amongst Friends of Guéoul scholars since when we launched programs in 2005! Now in the 17th year, Friends of Guéoul is supporting 226 students and welcomed 28 new boursières in 2022. Four former boursières are currently attending University in Senegal, and seven more will join them this year!

In 2019, the Friends of Guéoul Board hired Elke McGuire as the organization’s first paid Executive Director, taking the organization from Judy’s kitchen table out into the world. In 2022, a restricted donation allowed us the opportunity to employ an Associate Director, Marissa Messinger. Through their efforts, FoG celebrated a huge milestone in 2022 by finalizing non-profit status within the country of Senegal, which will help open new doors to growing the mission of Friends of Guéoul. We also celebrated educational milestones with many students; six students passed the BAC examination that will help foster their transition into a post-secondary program, five students passed the BFEM examination and will move into high school, and seven former FoG students embarked on their educational journeys to University. We were also able to welcome 28 new boursières to the Friends of Guéoul family after a two year hiatus from traveling to Senegal!

Looking forward, Elke and Marissa work to grow our Senegalese leadership team – Director Cheikh Makhfou Diop and a local Board of Directors created in 2023. In the US, they continue fundraising, grantwriting and closely collaborating with the team in Senegal.

We believe we have a unique advantage in the success of Friends of Guéoul by being led by local Senegalese people who know the best solutions to unique challenges of girls’ education in Senegal.