My life has more than considerably changed for the better thanks to my experience at Maison de la Gare for the two months I spent there as a volunteer. It will be impossible for me to forget all the lovely kids and adults I met at the center. My trip revolved around them and I will always be grateful that they made it as wonderful and lively as it was.

The talibé children in Saint Louis face a lot of hardships but, no matter what, they are brothers to one another. They laugh and play together. They also wrestle and fight like all kids. But there won't be a day when they won’t smile at you when you make a funny face. And Maison de la Gare’s mission is to lean into that happiness and provide a space where the kids can be kids.

Maison de la Gare has male and female staff members, and many of the volunteers it hosts are women. In Maison de la Gare’s center the talibés can experience a sense of parental, and more notably motherly, care and attention they get almost nowhere else. The staff and volunteers undoubtedly contribute the most by simply caring for these children, by sincerely wanting to improve their quality of life and concerning themselves with their well-being. By teaching the kids, telling them to brush their teeth every day, teaching them to be polite, clean, safe and responsible, and being there when they when the children need them.

This sense of parental care is achieved though exceptional staff members who lead by example. For instance, Awa, the center’s nurse. Awa is called the mother of the talibés because she dresses kids’ scraped knees and wounds and cares for them when they are sick. She is a delightful woman with a sunny disposition and a sympathetic heart for everyone including the kids. My volunteering partner, Myah, was another great positive presence for the talibés. Myah taught art classes where a piece of artwork would be made step by step with the children. And every rascal attending her classes would be blatantly enthusiastic in presenting their work to Myah every step of the way just so that she could say “Wow, yes that’s good!” This was a way to give the kids some much needed and unanimously appreciated positive affirmation.


All of which is to say, the idea behind Maison de La Gare is that a wide variety of volunteers can come and do their best to work for the betterment, physical health and positive psychological development of the future generation of Senegal.