SOS Children's Village Kaolack is in the hottest and most densely populated province of Senegal, which is also called the "peanut province." The city of Kaolack has over 200, 000 inhabitants. The SOS Children's Village has ten family houses, a village director's house and various administrative and other additional buildings. It opened in 1983 and can take in up to 100 children.
An SOS Hermann Gmeiner Primary School was built on the edge of the SOS Children's Village, which (like the SOS Kindergarten) is attended by children from the village as well as children from the neighbourhood. The primary school was opened in 1984, a year after the SOS Children's Village, and has a capacity for 600 children. The school has twelve classrooms, an administration area, a village director's house and several additional rooms. The kindergarten, which was opened at the same time as the SOS Children's Village, consists of four large classrooms and additional rooms, and can offer places to up to 140 children.
In March 1984, an SOS Medical Centre was also opened, which includes a maternity and paediatric department, in order to ensure medical care for the people and to implement preventive measures at a local level. It has several departments: general medicine, paediatrics, maternity, a dispensary, a laboratory, a room with ten beds and an administration area. Since the centre opened, up to 18,000 patients have been seen there each year.
Lastly, a social centre has been under construction since August 2005 within the framework of the programme to improve the living conditions of children from needy families. It is going to be added to the SOS Medical Centre and will be able to provide care for up to 178 children and 46 adults. The centre offers assistance to those from the neighbourhood so as to enable them to improve their living conditions: it supports them whilst they are looking for work or when setting up a small business, and provides them with medication and food. These supportive measures are intended to prevent problems associated with the dire social situation, such as prostitution, insufficient education and drug abuse.