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This past April, the iconic Malian photographer, Malick Sidibe, passed away at the age of 81. Sidibe captured the exuberance of the newly independent Mali in the 1960s and 70s, and his timeless images continue to inspire people around the world today.
At our annual Summer Party (July 27th), we paid homage to Sidibe by re-creating one of his famous sets - always modest and often covered in patterned fabric.
Amadou Fall (VP NBA Africa) and Masai Ujiri (President Toronto Raptors) are two of the most influential figures when it comes to shaping how the game of basketball is used to inspire African youth. After all, this is personal for them. Amadou (Senegal, SEED Founder) and Masai (Nigeria, Giants of Africa Founder) have both used the game to elevate their career paths and have each, respectively, founded organizations that are committed to using basketball as a tool for social, economic and personal development.
Each summer, Giants of Africa (based in Nigeria) hosts a series of basketball / life skills camps across Africa. This year, GOA is beginning their tour in Senegal (August 7-9) and will partner with SEED to serve hundreds of youth around the country with basketball clinics and valuable leadership & life skills seminars. GOA will continue their camps across the continent: Ghana (Aug 12-14), Nigeria (Aug 16-18), Kenya (Aug 19-22), Rwanda (Aug 23-25), Botswana (Aug 26-29).
At SEED, we recognize that while Senegal is a tolerant and inclusive society, the gender norms often favor males. We see this across several different aspects of society as girls are more likely to drop out of school (UNESCO), have lower literacy rates (UNICEF), and face a multitude of challenges that can deter their academic path, including forced or early marriage, pregnancy, and even disease.
Since the start of our girls programming in 2013, and the launch of SEED Academy Girls in 2014, we've made a concentrated effort to enhance our female specific services each year, and to close the gender gap in Senegal. With this in mind, we launched the SEED Women's Empowerment Program (WEP) to provide our girls with a supportive and open environment to develop their personal voice, and feel safe to express themselves freely.
For the month of August, we partnered with HOPE for Senegal, an education and youth advocacy non-profit, to host a summer camp for our SEED Academy Girls. The camp was segmented into four weeks, with weekly topics that facilitated team-building workshops and seminars. The themes included: Leadership Training, Violence Against Women (awareness), Women Sexual Health, Self-Acceptance (skill training).
With overwhelmingly positive feedback from students and parents, we look to further roll-out our Women's Empowerment Program during our 2016-17 school year.
This July (25-28), NBA Player, Matt Barnes (Sacramento Kings), visited SEED in Senegal to help inspire our students. The SEED team took Matt on a cultural and athletic tour of the country, while immersing him directly in our summer programs.
Matt visited the historical Goree Slave Island to pay homage to those that lost their lives in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Matt also worked with our SEED Academy students in Thies and put them through an NBA style workout. Finally, Matt joined our Live, Learn & Play summer tour to spread the game of basketball across Senegal and teach youth valuable life skills.
For the third straight year, SEED teamed-up with Dyckman Basketball to raise awareness about SEED's work in West Africa and the local New York communities that Dyckman reaches on a daily basis. Together, this unique, international partnership provides a platform to share new ideas and culture -- with the highly-charged NYC streetball atmosphere as the backdrop.
This year, we partnered with the NY Knicks and hosted a youth basketball clinic for 150 youth from the local community. Seven SEED alumni participated as coaches alongside NY Knicks and Dyckman coaches. The three-hour session featured a mix of on-court drills and life skills activities.
More than 300 guests helped us raise $60,000 to support our programs in Senegal and The Gambia.
For the 3rd consecutive year we hosted our Student-Athlete Career Services Day to support our student's ongoing professional development. This year, we partnered with City National Bank, where eight SEED alumni enjoyed a 3-hour career services workshop. Led by SEED Professional Board Members, Michael Wieder (Wayup), Nina Boyd (Wayup) and Todd Burach (City National Bank), the students first received resume, cover letter and interview prep skills from Wayup, a career services and job employment agency.
Then, City National's Entertainment Group provided a detailed look at how their company works and the different career tracks available at the bank. Senior Executives from the group led a roundtable discussion where alumni had the opportunity to ask about career related advice. Finally, Todd led the group through a personal accounting activity to help our students properly manage their finances as they begin to earn an income and plan for their futures.
For the 3rd straight year, we teamed-up with the most famous streetball court in the world, Dyckman Park, and Nike, to host one of the most highly anticipated streetball events of the summer. SEED Academy Alumni (students from a Senegalese boarding school for student-athletes), and select local NY student-athletes with African roots, took on a group of talented Dyckman Park All-Stars.
Each game in this series of current high school and college standouts has come down to the wire and this one was no different. After Team Africa mounted a furious comeback to cut Dyckman's lead to 1 with 90 seconds to play, Team Dyckman finished the game on a 6-0 run to win their straight All-Star game.
Most importantly, the sold-out game raised awareness about SEED's work in West-Africa and the impact Dyckman has on its surrounding community.
