Women’s Skills Center

Teaching sewing and cooking skills to women to help lift their families out of poverty.

Education for girls in Senegal has never been a priority. Many young girls drop out of school before completing high school, limiting future opportunities for success. This program provides literacy training and clothes-making skills to girls and young women so they can be self-employed later and earn an income to support or help support their families. The program targets dropouts between the ages of 16-30. According to the Directors of the schools in Nord Foire and Mbour, more than fifty of graduates have started and continue to run small businesses using the skills obtained at the Women’s Skill Center. They estimate that many others worked in business until they married and started families. Former students still come to the mission for refresher courses and special events.

The growth of skills centers in Mbour and Nord Foire will moderately help to improve the situation for women. If we are successful in bringing two more programs on line then a much greater impact will be achieved. Having programs to celebrate the accomplishments of the women will help to raise the awareness of women in the communities.

Increase enrollment and improve curriculum to make the schools self-sustaining. Making the school self-sustaining will enable the program to offer scholarships and greater opportunities for needy students in the neighborhoods to benefit from these program offerings. The more women in the program the more women defeating poverty the more job opportunities for others in the community.

More people going into business and changing the quality of their lives and the lives of their chidren. More people being employed in the small shops and botiques for a living wage.