The second largest prison in Senegal offers young inmates a weekly fencing class, where boys and girls can spend two hours training together outside the prison walls, restoring self-confidence and learning respect and discipline along the way.
The charity “Pour le sourire d’un enfant” – “For the Smile of a Child” – started the program in order to help the teenage prisoners reintegrate into society, and officials of the Senegalese Thiès Prison claim that re-offending rates have declined thanks to fencing.
“I enjoy fencing because when I am here, I forget about life inside. I can play with my friends, chat a bit and laugh,” says one of the prisoners.
