Elhadj A Ndoye
Description
As a child growing up in Senegal, Elhadj Ndoye had seen the talibè, but when, as an adult visiting his hometown, he saw dozens of these children huddl
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ed together, cold and hungry in an abandoned building, the stark reality of their lives hit him. He wanted—no, he needed—to know how it was that such young children had nowhere to spend the night, and how, at a time of carefree innocence and vulnerability, they were abandoned, left to fend for themselves, at the mercy of all dangers.
In 2010, he created The Forgotten Children, a registered non-profit foundation through which he began collecting clothes, shoes, and medical necessities for shipment to his brother for distribution to those children. Afterward, he realized they had only applied a bandaid; the clothes would wear out, the shoes would be stolen, and they would again be hungry, barefoot, and still living in the streets. Seeking to do something meaningful, the foundation set out to build a boarding school to get those children safely off the streets and to provide a positive and healthy future for them.
Building the school, however, was not as easy as one might think. Between corrupt contractors and a funding shortfall, the challenges seemed insurmountable.
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