Located in Thiès, approximately 50 miles outside of Dakar, the SEED Academy is a co-ed institution and a Senegalese basketball powerhouse. A basketball school that houses 30 full-time student-athletes, and 50 or so part-time after-school participants, SEED (which stands for the Sports for Education and Economic Development Academy) and the SEED Project work to create community leaders, whether through their athletic skills or otherwise.

There are now nearly 100 SEED alumni working in 15 countries around the world, 29 of whom are playing high school or college basketball in the U.S., and 20 others playing professionally somewhere on the globe — most prominently Gourgi Dieng, a 2013 NBA first round draft pick by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Brooklyn-based sport and culture publication Victory Journal sent Italian-born photographer Alessandro “Zuek” Simonetti on assignment to capture a few days in the lives of SEED Academy students. His striking images originally appeared in a special SEED edition of Victory late last year. Okayafrica was granted permission to share the photos in the gallery above. Click through and visit the SEED Project for more information.

On Tuesday, June 24th, SEED will be holding its annual summer event at Up & Down in NYC, honoring Toronto Raptors General Manager, Masai Ujiri (Nigeria) and former NBA player DeSagana Diop (Senegal). Additional details and tickets for the event can be found here.