canary islands charity hotel school senegal illiteracy

Canarian Charity Opens Hotel School in Senegal to Fight Illiteracy

A Hotel with a Canarian Heart Opens in Senegal

A hotel with a Canarian soul has established itself in Senegal with an ambitious purpose: to help end illiteracy in the African country. The tourist infrastructure stems from a project by the El Buen Samaritano Foundation, which has just inaugurated the Baobab Hotel-School in Senegal’s Kayar region, a known hotspot for emigration towards the Canary Islands, according to UNESCO. This hotel complex will be the centrepiece of this solidarity programme, as it will not only serve as a school facility but will also be the project’s principal benefactor. Indeed, all money raised from tourism activities carried out there—be it stays, conferences, or other events—will finance student training and maintain the establishment and its facilities.

Building Bridges Between Canarias and Senegal

“It is a cooperation project between the Canary Islands and Senegal,” explains José Félix Hernández López, director of the entity, parish priest of the Santa María de Añaza Church in Tenerife, and better known as Father Pepe. Hernández is the founder of the non-profit organisation El Buen Samaritano, an entity that since 2017 has promoted the social inclusion of migrants, the elderly, and other vulnerable groups through projects and training workshops. After nine years of operation, the association now manages a total of 14 reception centres in the Canaries that address the needs of these people.

Providing a “Real Future” for Senegalese Youth

The Foundation has driven this programme to provide a “real future” for Senegalese youth, as defined by the foundation’s promoter. This is crucial, as over 40% of Senegal’s population cannot read or write, making it one of the countries with the highest illiteracy rates in the world, according to UNESCO data. This problem stems from several circumstances, including the country’s high poverty rates, its linguistic variety, and the high occupation of rural areas that are also very far from urban centres.

Training and Combating Prejudice

In this context, this school was born under the motto ‘One Human Family’. The idea began to develop so that young Africans who came to the foundation’s centres in Tenerife could have “the same opportunities” in their place of origin. Hence, the training offer at this new hotel-school includes carpentry workshops, literacy programmes, and training in cookery and agriculture. Its purpose is to create a space for the students’ human and professional development.

In addition to offering this help, Father Pepe saw the possibility of combating “falsehoods and prejudices towards migrants.” According to the 2024 Hate Speech Monitoring Report on Social Networks by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, 38% of hate speech against migrants on social media is based on stereotypes. “Immigrants do not come to take anything from us, but to make a life for themselves,” states the priest, who argues that the Canary Islands need a “generational replacement” and migrants are “willing to work.” In this sense, Father Pepe notes that most migrants do the jobs “no one else wants to do.”

Empowering Women and Further Projects

Another purpose of this new infrastructure in Kayar is to reduce the significant gender gap that exists in Senegal. To this end, specific “empowerment” initiatives aimed at women have been established. Indeed, three out of ten Senegalese women marry before the age of 18, according to the Continuous Demographic and Health Survey by Senegal’s National Agency of Statistics and Demography. After marriage, they are forced to abandon their education to take care of domestic tasks. Due to all these barriers and difficulties for women, the school aims to help their integration into the labour market so they can achieve a degree of economic autonomy.

Beyond this project, Hernández is also launching a mother-and-child centre, construction of which begins next week, for homeless Senegalese women. This place aims to help mothers in difficult situations so they can raise their children. This work will also be carried out in Kayar, the same region where the Baobab Hotel-School is located. Furthermore, El Buen Samaritano wants to propose another project in collaboration with the region’s health centre to increase the quality of life in this coastal town. All these programmes aim to reduce its high poverty threshold, severe economic crisis, and the lack of resources for its people.

Source

Scroll to Top