Sustainable Development and the Ecovillage Movement in Senegal

Catalog description

The three-week January Term course in “International Service Learning in Senegal: Sustainable Development and the Ecovillage Movement” is offered collaboratively by The City College of New York, in partnership with REDES (Network for Ecovillage Emergence and Development in the Sahel), the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Sustainable Neighbors Network, and other local and international NGOs. The course engages students in understanding and enhancing concepts of sustainable development in West Africa where ancient heritage and community values are still intact to a degree rarely found elsewhere. Students live with host families. The course also will offer field trips, other excursions, drumming and dance festivities and other leisure activities. The program starts and finishes in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, spending most of the session in the eco-commune of Bambey Serere and the other project sites near Dakar. In Bambey Serere, American and Senegalese student partners, form teams with community members working in various community projects. Over the course of the 3 weeks, students participate in several classroom sessions interspersed with participatory team-based guided practice in action-research and service learning, as each team work on their project, meeting needs expressed by the community. Senegalese students make this teamwork possible by translating between English and the local language for their American and community work partners.