G3SM is the rather unique name of a school located in a suburb of Dakar, Senegal. The school was founded and is still led by Mamadou Siliou Diallo, a man of action with a clear goal in mind: to fight poverty through education.
interview and article by Marc Van de Velde
Mamadou’s journey is, to say the least, remarkable. On November 11, 1988, he started with a single classroom, a blackboard, five benches, and five students. Classes were held from 8 a.m. to midnight. During the day, children attended lessons, and in the evening, literacy classes were offered to adults. Today, the school has just over 900 students and offers a full curriculum, from kindergarten to high school, and recently added five technical fields. What’s even more remarkable is that the school receives no government funding. G3SM is a non-subsidized private institution, a sort of private school, although its diplomas are recognized by the state. Is this too expensive for the residents of this poor community? Mamadou responds: "Parents who can afford it pay 300 euros per year. Some pay less, and 25 to 30% of the students, whose parents cannot afford the tuition fees, attend free of charge.
To finance the expansion of the school with new classrooms, I turned to various external partners, such as parents and alumni, a small bank, a Spanish NGO, the Belgian International Youth Bureau, and a couple from Sint-Genesius-Rode who send us an annual donation to support disadvantaged students.