Pape

My name is Pape, and I live in Dakar, Senegal, with my father, two brothers and three sisters. The biggest challenge in my life was losing my mother to cancer when I was young. I had to stop studying to help my family financially. I felt deep grief and intense emotional pain. It left a void in my life, causing me to reevaluate my priorities, realizing how fragile and fleeting life can be. My friends and my sister and her husband encouraged and supported me tremendously during this time.

I began to follow Christ in my last year of secondary school. A friend, who is a priest, would speak to me about the Lord and the ways He changed his life. I wanted to have my own intimacy with the Lord and someone to lean on after my mother died. God has always been faithful and has consoled me and is now the center of my life. I learned about Young Life when I was invited to camp. I couldn’t wait to get involved and I am now a team leader. I am also involved in the ministry at my church.

As a recipient of the Developing Global Leaders scholarship, I am studying electromechanical engineering and computer science at Ecole Centrale Polytechnique in Dakar, Senegal. After graduation, I want to be an electromechanical engineer for a large company and help support my family and give back to my community while participating in Young Life activities to tell teens about the faithfulness of God.