4Sahara
For over 45 years, more than 173,000 Sahrawi people have lived as refugees in the Tindouf desert in Algeria, forcibly displaced from Western Sahara. Amid extreme heat, water scarcity, and minimal resources, children grow up in conditions where access to education, art, and play is nearly nonexistent.
Many schools operate without libraries, without books, without color, without instruments. Childhood, instead of being a time of imagination, becomes a form of resistance.
This harsh reality contrasts deeply with the strength, hospitality, and profound commitment of the Sahrawi people to education as a vital tool for dignity, identity, and freedom.
Our Response
At We Through the Wall, in partnership with Sahrawi educators and local actors, we launched the project “Bridges of Sand” — an initiative aimed at creating spaces where creativity, learning, and hope can flourish, even in the heart of the desert.
We are working in three educational centers to build libraries, art and music rooms, play areas, and small community gardens with desert-adapted plants and seeds (such as moringa, aloe vera, and cactus). We dream of spaces where childhood can truly thrive — even in exile.
The center is not just a place of learning, but of care, empowerment, and transformation. It is built day by day through a commitment to educating with love and walking alongside the community through active listening.
Martyr Abda Mohamed School (Wilaya of Smara)
700 students
Only 15 books currently available
Needed:
- Children’s and youth books in Spanish, Catalan, Basque, French, English, and Italian
- School supplies: notebooks, pencils, backpacks, colored markers
- Art materials: tempera paints, brushes, paper, clay
- Basic musical instruments
- Sports equipment: balls, uniforms, nets
Seeds and tools to support a community-led school garden
8th of March School (Wilaya of El Aaiún)
480 students
Needed (to build from scratch):
- A multilingual library
- An art and music classroom
A full set of educational and creative materials
Ausserd Kindergarten (Wilaya of Ausserd)
For children aged 0 to 5
Needed:
- Picture books and storybooks
- Educational toys
- Soft furniture and materials for a playroom and reading corner
This project is born from a deep respect for Sahrawi culture. It seeks not to impose, but to accompany; not to act for, but to create with. These are the bridges that cross the walls of exile.
How can you help?
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- Donate to cover the cost of shipping materials, acquiring resources, and ensuring the project’s long-term sustainability (2 euros per kilo, approximately one ton monthly).
- Sponsor a child for €15 per month.
- Organize a collection drive for books, toys, school supplies, musical instruments, backpacks, seeds, or educational materials.
- Connect your school or educational center through a cultural and human partnership with the Sahrawi refugee camps.
- Host a sensitization event about the Sahrawi people and every child’s right to dream.
“Because no wall should keep childhood from imagining, playing, or learning.
Help us build these “bridges of sand” where hope can bloom.”