Yaayu Daara (Senegal)
Coming soon.
This long-term ethnographic research project explores a model of community-based foster parenting in Senegal knowns as yaayu daara, or “daara mother.”
In a small fishing village outside Dakar, a daara (Koranic boarding school) pairs students with women in the community who feed them and provide clothing and supplies, essentially becoming de facto foster mothers. Through their religious piety, the women become bonded to their foster students and advocate for them in school and in healthcare. Our goal is to examine this system of foster care, as well as how local kinship and gender norms map onto notions of division of labor at the community level, thereby promoting child health.
Deliverables: Ethnographic monograph book; Peer-reviewed journal articles; Conference presentations