Leonor is from Saint-Louis, a city located in the northwest of Senegal.
While studying at African Leadership Academy (ALA) in South Africa, Leonor participated in a community service group that worked with people in suburban areas to cultivate and harvest corn and rice. The food they grew supported the suburban population, provided food for a nearby hospital, and was also sold for a small profit in the city to help improve conditions in the suburban community.
Leonor wants to return to the rural areas of Senegal where the majority of the country’s crops are being grown and harvested. Rice, an important part of the Senegalese diet, is mostly imported from China, because the rice from China is easier to cook. She hopes to find a type of rice that is easy to grow and that people will eat, in order to teach the people in rural areas how to produce enough rice to feed the country. Leonor dreams of “owning a big farm in my country and being able to create many jobs for the people who live there.”
