Fundación Repsol, in collaboration with the Por una sonrisa en África (For a Smile in Africa) Foundation is developing three solidarity actions in Senegal, which have allowed the necessary infrastructure to be provided to education and health centres in the communities of Mbour, Mbackombel and Louly Benteigne, in the south of Dakar, in one of the poorest areas of the African savannah.
After the Rally Dakar 2008 was cancelled and transferred to South America, the region no longer receives significant resources and one of its main sources of income generated through the race. Taking advantage of the African sporting event, Repsol and its foundation carried out a complete solidarity action, without intermediaries, transporting and delivering medical material to different hospitals.
Now that the Dakar is no longer held in Africa, the commitment of Fundación Repsol with the African continent has continued and it has been involved in different projects that its partner “Por una sonrisa en África” develops in the area. In this way, a clinic-maternity centre has been electrified and material and equipment has been provided for schools, as part of an education project for one of the neediest areas of the African savannah.
The “Por una sonrisa en África” Foundation was set up in 2002, when Mario Llonch and his wife, after getting to know the area first hand, decided to start an aid project for the region near the city of Mbour, 90 kilometres south of Dakar, the capital of Senegal. They started living 9 months a year in Mbackombel, a village with around 40 inhabitants in the middle of the Senegal savannah.
The first major project undertaken by the “Por una sonrisa en África” Foundation was to set up a clinic, which is now also a maternity centre, in Louly Benteigné. It is a medical centre where the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages can access primary medical care without needing to travel to the city of Mbour, around 17 km away. This clinic cares for the health of new born babies, attends births, teaches basic hygiene rules for improving their living conditions and practices general medicine.
Fundación Repsol has financed the electrification of this clinic and maternity centre, and as a result, from now on, consultancies can be held in the afternoon and evening, medication can be kept refrigerated, night births can be attended and the centre’s incubators can be kept running.
Later on, “Por una sonrisa en África” promoted a primary school in Mbackombel -which now has 360 students from across the area-, to replace the old school where just 25 children studied. These children go to school every day from nearby villages, walking up to 5 or 6 kilometres twice a day to receive primary education in French (the official language of the country), eat and learn basic hygiene rules.
The third step was to build a students’ residence in the city of Mbour, where 11 boys and 16 girls aged between 12 and 18, after studying at the Mbackombel schools, study at the secondary school. Due to the lack of resources of their families, in spite of successfully passing primary school, children often cannot access higher education due to the distance and the cost of moving. The residence offers them a place to sleep, where they have three meals a day and a study room, with computers and a library, where every afternoon they do their homework under the supervision of a teacher.
For a more in-depth view of the actions developed by the “Por una sonrisa en África” Foundation, its website www.puse.org gives detailed information about the history of this Private Foundation and the projects it is developing in the south of Senegal.
Mario Llonch, Chairman of “Por una sonrisa en África” >> Audio
“The Por una sonrisa en África Foundation is carrying out an integral development project in the rural area of Senegal, where it is very difficult to gather the subsistence resources needed to grow. The three pillars of the foundation are based on health, education and development. To do this, we have set up a clinic and maternity centre, where between twenty and thirty births are attended a month, as well as treating people from nearby villages who live a long way from the city. We have also built a new school in a village that is far away from Mbour, where we currently have 360 pupils, and a residence in the city so that these children can then go on to study at secondary school and even at university. The third project involves improving the agriculture and livestock systems, as up until now, they followed customs inherited from previous generations. By doing this we are closing a circle -from the moment children are born until they finish their studies-, improving the living conditions in this region.”
Javier Inclán, Director of the Social Area of Fundación Repsol >> Audio
“The Por una sonrisa en África Foundation meets all of the aid requirements that we want to develop in the African continent. Development aid, firstly, is based on food, to thereby ensure correct nutrition. Secondly, improving health -maternity and the clinic are essential in an area like the savannah-. And finally education, helping a foundation like “Por una sonrisa en África” to have the resources to develop its work and encouraging children to go to school. Whether children study or not depends on their own effort and it is up to us to provide them with the infrastructures to study; be it desks, computers or grants needed for children without resources to advance. Since we started coming to Africa with the Dakar, the Repsol riders taught us to love this continent and to cooperate with it. When the race has gone far away, this spirit has remained and we want to be the driving force behind specific projects that, in the framework of its customs, gives Africa the chance to develop.”
