In 2019, Repton School Dubai partnered with Dubai Cares to build two new schools in Senegal. It was an admirable project that aimed to provide education to over 240 students and adults and saw the completion of a brand new school campus in Ndagane. We spoke to Holly Tighe, Head of Nursery, on what brought this project to life and how the education community in the UAE can raise awareness and make a difference.
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Since opening our doors in 2007, Repton Dubai has been huge supporters of Dubai Cares as the work they are doing to help the less fortunate in the UAE and beyond is truly admirable. In 2018, the Junior School Student Council was eager to go one step further and take on the huge but exciting mission of building a school for children less fortunate than themselves.
Dubai Cares offered the amazing ‘Adopt a School’ programme, which allowed us to do exactly that, so we eagerly signed up. This project has meant we now have tangible results for the students from Nursery all the way up to IB and allows them to see the fruition of all their hard work, creativity and determination, in terms of fundraising.
As a school we take great pride in all we achieve on campus each and every day, so having the opportunity to provide the gift of education for others is very important to us as a community.
Although a fundamental right, sadly there are children all over the world who are not able to access basic education for a plethora of reasons. The Dubai Cares ‘Adopt a School’ programme in partnership with buildOn is an ideal avenue for members of the UAE community who wish to gain awareness and have the chance to make a valuable contribution. Not only do they provide a solution for the problem, but they also allow all who wish to be a part of it the chance to make a change.
Since joining this partnership, we have learnt that we do not build schools for these communities, we build schools with them and give them the chance to empower themselves. Dubai Cares and buildOn educate us as fundraisers on the great importance of joining this campaign; how life-changing it is for the community you construct your school in, as well as maintaining communication with your school after it has been built through photos and human interest stories from pupils who attend classes there.
I would say to anyone that wishes to join us in our quest to provide education to children in Senegal or who are eager to learn more about this fantastic initiative to visit our crowdfunding page, read our story and make a donation.
After travelling to Ndagane for a week in 2019 to help break ground and build the school that Assy Sene now attends, it was simply incredible to see her thriving in her new school environment and to read about what a life-changing impact all of Repton Dubai’s fundraising efforts have had.
Being there with the community to help start the construction and get to know the families, right through to receiving the images of Assy and her classmates along with her heart-warming story is an indescribable feeling.
It has injected a renewed sense of passion into the Repton community to continue our efforts, ensure education continues and to make sure we are all doing our bit to help. During these times of challenge and uncertainty, these glimmers of hope and positivity from across the globe help to remind us all of what is important – humanity, kindness and care!
Assy attends the first school that the Repton Dubai community raised funds for, and that a team of eight Reptonians travelled to Senegal to help build. We were scheduled to go back with another team of students, parents and teachers from the Repton community in October 2020, but due to COVID 19 pandemic, this was understandably cancelled.
Despite this, I am happy to report that the construction went ahead and our second school is now open in the community of Koure Kalome – children are now in attendance and we are already receiving more wonderful images of the pupils learning happily in our second school.
After a difficult period of lockdown and restrictions, we are proud to announce that fundraising for our third school is now back underway and students from both Junior and Senior School are busy planning innovative fundraising ideas in order to raise the remaining 90,000 AED needed to successfully reach our target and build a third school.
We are hopeful that our community will pull together to ensure even more children in Senegal have the chance to learn in a safe and secure school environment, and we aim to achieve this remarkable goal before the end of the academic year. We are determined to finish what we started and know from our experience to date that together, we can make a change.
My name is Holly Tighe and I am the Head of Nursery at Repton School Dubai, as well as the Junior School Student Council Co-ordinator. This is my thirteenth year at Repton and it has been my pleasure to be a part of the incredible team here. Although I am originally from Northamptonshire in the UK, Dubai has very much become my home. My passion is finding ways to teach children the important lesson of kindness and giving back, you are never too young to start learning that you can make a big difference.
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