Orphaned children
Permanent residential care: accommodation, food, clothing and medical care provided on a daily basis.
Touba — Senegal — since 2012
A home, care and an education for every orphaned child
Opened on 5 July 2012 with the blessing of the Grand Caliph of the Mourides, the Keur Mame Diarra Orphanage provides a home for orphaned and abandoned children, as well as those born to mothers in difficulty.
The orphanage’s premises, at Darou Khadim, Route de Bélel.
Our impact
From July 2012 to December 2025
575 children cared for since 2012
69 current residents, including 16 infants
36 children receiving outpatient care, including 14 infants
105 children currently receiving support
30 dedicated staff members: 25 women and 5 men
253
places built, standing empty
The orphanage has capacity for 313 children. It currently houses around sixty. It is not a lack of walls or space that is the problem: it is the beds, the equipment and the funding needed to sustain them.
The others remain on our waiting list, in circumstances where their survival is not guaranteed.
Create a placeDay-to-day life
Nurses on duty day and night
Thirteen nursery nurses take turns every two days looking after the infants. Working alongside them are assistants, laundry staff, cooks, a nurse and caretakers: thirty people in total, twenty-five of whom are women.
Each infant receives a jar of milk every three days, nappies, care and medical monitoring provided in partnership with the health facilities in Touba.
Our missions
To welcome, care for and educate
The orphanage was founded by young Serigne Daara people eager to serve God through humanitarian work, for the benefit of the most neglected communities.
Abandoned children
Immediate care for infants entrusted to the orphanage, in collaboration with social services and the courts.
Children of mothers in difficulty
Support for children of mothers with behavioural problems, whilst maintaining family ties.
Education and training
Learning the Qur’an, followed by referral to a Franco-Arab school or vocational training, until the child becomes self-sufficient.
A child’s journey
A two-stage support programme
The orphanage does not take children in all at once: it supports them at two distinct stages of their childhood.
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1
From 1 to 36 months — early childhood
Infants live at the orphanage. They are provided with milk, nappies, medical care, health monitoring and the constant presence of carers until they reach the age of three.
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2
Return to the family
At 36 months, the child returns to their family. Family ties are maintained: the orphanage was never intended to replace them.
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3
Returning at the age of the Qur’an
Once old enough to learn, the child returns to study the Qur’an, then goes on to a Franco-Arab school or a vocational training programme.
In pictures
Life at the orphanage
Meals, early learning, supervision: the daily lives of 105 children, made possible by donations.
Support me
A donation, however small, makes a difference to a child’s day
Running the orphanage costs 4,000,000 F CFA per month: meals, healthcare and schooling for the 105 children currently in our care.