Mame Diarra Bousso Ndiaye (2012 - 2013)

Senegal

Mame Ndiaye was born in the city of Tivaouane, in the region of Thies, approximately 70 km from Dakar. There, she completed her primary, secondary, and collegial studies. An activist since childhood, Mame was coordinator of the Club d’éducation à la vie familiale (EVF), a program of the Groupe pour l’étude et l’enseignement de la population.

After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences at Tivaouane College, Mame moved to Dakar to pursue studies in English at Cheikh Anta Diop University. Afterwards, she pursued another Bachelor’s degree, this time in Business Administration with a focus on Communications and Organization. She also obtained certificates in Leadership, Project Management, and Social Entrepreneurship, respectively from Collège Cambodge, UN – Habitat, and the International Organization for La Francophonie.

In 2002, she founded the Organization for Children and Teenagers in difficulty, later renamed Active Solidarity – Recreating Social Ties, the first Senegalese organization to re-integrate women and minors after their release from prison. Active Solidarity was chosen by UN-Habitat to be a benefactor of the UN-Habitat Fund for Urban Youth in 2011.

Since 2011, Active Solidarity has been on the short list of organizations formally congratulated by UN-Habitat for their work with urban youth as a result of the UN-Habitat Fund. Furthermore, in 2010, Mame was named one of the 100 top young leaders of la Francophonie. As a result of this honour, she was invited to participate in the third Francophonie Summer School.

Mame is actively involved in promoting the rights of youth and women. In this regard, she represented West Africa in the International Youth Parliament. She is also the point person for the West African Youth Network in Senegal. In 2012, she was part in the Wa-Senegal coalition (wa defined as people of the people) for the next legislative elections.

Professionally, she administered the Foundation for Youth Employment of the Movement of Senegalese Enterprises. In this capacity, she organized two editions of the Forum for First Employment of Senegal. Currently, she is wholly dedicated to the management of Active Solidarity, through which she plans to implement her vision of a better world.

As a Sauvé Scholar, she aims to develop her skills in social entrepreneurship in developing economies, so as to create opportunities for communities that are often marginalized by traditional development programs. Her research goal is to develop a strategy to enable these communities to achieve their full potential and to become both drivers and direct beneficiaries of development.

She also counts on using her Sauvé year to finalize her project « Second Chance Academy, » enabling incarcerated women, minors facing legal challenges, and other marginalized segments of society to access education programs, professional training and social reintegration. Mame draws her inspiration from the paradigm that each person holds the potential to contribute to progress. She plans on using her energies to give each and every one of her beneficiaries a second chance with which to rebuild their lives and become fully engaged citizens.

Mame looks forward to diverse experiences, guidance, examples, and inspiration to ensure the success of her initiative. She is eager to share her experiences, projects, and values with others and to contribute her unique cultural perspectives to the work of her fellow Sauvé Scholars.

Mame is also passionate about writing (poetry, articles, etc.), reading, and sports.
 

Country of origin

Senegal

Country of Residence

Senegal