When Awa, a 66-year-old mother who lives near Ndereppe Epicenter in Senegal, recalls her early years of motherhood, the memories are painful. She gave birth to ten children, but four died in infancy from preventable diseases. “We didn’t know what killed them,” she says softly. “We had no knowledge, no access to health services and no one to guide us.”
That began to change in 2002 when The Hunger Project-Senegal began partnering with her community through the Epicenter Strategy, a model that unites communities to mobilize local leadership and achieve self-reliance. Awa joined health trainings that taught her about disease prevention, nutrition and maternal care. Today, nearly 10 years since the epicenter declared self-reliance, she continues to serve as a health coordinator for her community, supporting mothers to reduce, and even end, child mortality. In this role, she leads immunization campaigns and shares life-saving knowledge every day.
Looking back on her participation with The Hunger Project, Awa notes that her transformation didn’t stop there. She spent two years participating in our adult literacy program, where she learned to read and write in Wolof, her local language. Now she trains others, passing on the gift of literacy.
“Education has changed my life,” she says. “And I want every child to have that opportunity.”
Her passion for learning led her to become a teaching assistant at a kindergarten supported by the epicenter. “The children who pass through our kindergarten perform much better in school than those who don’t,” Awa explains. “That is why I fight for education. It gives our children a future.”
What she treasures most is the confidence she gained. “Me, who couldn’t even read or write, now has the confidence to write a speech in Wolof and read it to my community,” says Awa, recalling the day she addressed her community in the 2015 Epicenter Self-Reliance celebration.
From loss to leadership, Awa’s journey shows how The Hunger Project’s community-led approach in Senegal transforms lives, mobilizing women to lead their communities toward creating a world without hunger.
Photo Credit: Senegal, 2025 © The Hunger Project