News from Maison de la Gare
A Home for Talibé Children in Transition
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Maison de la Gare's newest project - Please support us
Since Maison de la Gare's welcome centre in Saint Louis opened
its doors to the talibé children in late 2010, and addition of the infirmary in 2011, the centre has become a
second home to hundreds of children and a beacon of hope to 1000s more.
Our needs have evolved, and we now
seek to complete the centre with a new building
that will help us to address three continuing problems.
Supporting integration of talibés who have become too old for the daaras -
Kalidou, Abdoulaye, 
Mamadou and Arouna in
the above photo are examples of talibé youth who have grown up in Maison de la Gare's programs and are now
ready to move on from their daaras. We need to find a way to accommodate them while they complete their
schooling or become established with small businesses or other employment.
Transitional accommodation for talibés in crisis - We regularly take charge of talibé
children whom we have 
found sleeping on the streets at night, on the run from their daaras. Working with the local office of the
Ministry of Justice, we care for these children while arrangements are made for reintegrating them in their
daaras, returning them to their home villages, or otherwise. We need a place where they can be safely sheltered
for a period of several days to several weeks.
Kitchen for food preparation - We
need a food preparation space 
with a sink, an oven and counters to help us
feed the talibé children whom we serve every day with better nutrition and hygiene. Our food is currently
prepared in an office or workshop, which are clearly not suited to this purpose.
To resolve these problems, we propose to use the west end of our centre next to the classrooms, which
is now undeveloped. Our vision
is to build there a two-story building with a kitchen, apartments for older talibés and a dormitory for talibés
in crisis. We will define this project in detail, with full costing, over the coming months. We are seeking
financial support from every possible source to make it possible.
