Mame’s Story

Mame Diop grew up at an MHP property and attended the MHP Community Life afterschool program. A successful athlete and leader, Mame is an engineering major at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). At MHP’s 2022 Benefit Breakfast fundraiser, she shared a moving story underscoring the impact that MHP student enrichment programs had on her. She described how the MHP community where her family resided has provided “a place to call home where we could live comfortably and draw strength from the community around us.”  

A former student government president at Blake High School in Silver Spring, Mame first interacted with MHP after the nonprofit developer built a property in her neighborhood on Glenville Road. “My dad often shared that when MHP moved on the street, the community became like the one he remembered in Dakar, Senegal. But with one-third of the population in Senegal living in poverty, my parents decided to move to the United States for more opportunities for our family,” she said. 

Mame said her parents have worked many jobs to make sure they had everything they needed, albeit not enough. Housing costs, she said, have outstripped her parents’ wages, making her family pay more for rent and unable to save. Mame plays basketball and soccer at UMBC, demonstrating her love for sports. “I have always gravitated towards being a leader. It’s just helping others become the best they can be—a lot like what has been done for me, my family, my school, and MHP,” she said. 

Please watch and learn more about Mame’s story in the video below.