WORLD
TAMBACOUNDA, Senegal (CNS) —
When she heard from the village chief that a 14-year-old girl was being forced
to leave school and marry, Senegalese aid worker Constance Mbaye could think of
only one thing to do. “I gave the chief my telephone number and address and told
him to tell the girl that if she could escape and make it to the city, I would
take care of her,” said Mbaye, a Catholic who once thought she wanted to be a
nun. She said the girl, Idiatou, fled her tiny village the same evening, walked
five miles in the dark through forests and fields to the nearest road, then
hitched a ride to Tambacounda, where she showed up in front of Mbaye’s house the
next morning. The event in 2007 marked the beginning of Femmes Entr’Aide, the
charity Mbaye founded to help Idiatou and others like her study amid great
obstacles in rural Senegal, where a 2012 UNESCO report shows 94 percent of women
ages 15-24 have less than a lower secondary education. “They get married early, or their parents don’t have the means to
pay for school, or it is far and they can’t get there,” Mbaye told Catholic News Service in mid-December. “I grew up in
the (Catholic) church and learned to help others when I can,” said Mbaye. “I
consider that my efforts to educate young women are part of what Jesus meant
when he told us to love each other.”
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