In Senegal, the majority of the population lives in rural areas where education is not given much importance due to the lack of administrative and school infrastructure. Access to education remains difficult, especially for girls who, culturally, are given in marriage very early. Added to this is the huge problem of birth registration, as 23% of the population is living without any identity.*11
This data allows us to clearly see how urgent it is to act in favor of children’s education and, in particular, support girls to promote gender equality— but they must feel they belong first. I have therefore decided to create a citizens’ initiative called JExiste, which allows anyone born in a community to have a legal identity (a birth certificate and a nationality). We do advocacy to raise public awareness to help parents understand how important it is for their children to have an identity and go to school, and we also provide free information on birth registration procedures.
I was born in a village of 25,000 inhabitants called Koussanar in the south of Senegal, where everything favors failure due to the lack of infrastructure, poverty, culture, 45-degree heat, and precarious conditions of education. I would walk six kilometers a day to go to school, but I turned these difficulties into motivation by promising myself to succeed in my professional life.
If I have been able to succeed, it is because I was lucky enough to have a birth certificate, attend school before I could even believe in myself, choose my path to success, and pursue my dreams to the end. I am a self-made woman. All I do today with my initiatives is to show that it is possible to achieve everything—even if you started with nothing.
That is why now I am working hard so that every girl like me has the opportunity to make their own life choices and become successful. Because nothing is imPOSSIBLE for us—we are WOMEN.