fbpx

THP-Senegal Trains Women to Start and Grow Their Business

Update to the Global Board

October 2013

Building on the November 2012 $100,000 ICCO grant to THP-Senegal, the Concerned Women’s Education Program has successfully started implementing activities to train women in the skills for starting and growing their business. Furthermore, THP-Senegal was granted $80,000 from IntraHealth to execute a malaria program in one of the poorest regions of Senegal (Tambacounda region). Activities outside of these two grants have continued as planned for the year, with special emphasis on the food security and microfinance programs, as well as the income generating activities.

Accomplishments

  • Local Funds: ICCO. ICCO funds have been put to use conducting trainings at Coki, Dahra and Namarel Epicenters to develop the technical and professional capacities of newly literate youth and adults. These high quality trainings included hairdressing, sewing, dyeing, and metal works and electro-mechanics (for young apprentices working in neighborhood workshops). The program has recently shifted its focus to agricultural activities as ICCO focuses on creating sustainable jobs with an emphasis on high-value agricultural products due to the fact that they can be processed and transformed. Agriculture offers more possibilities than traditional avenues.
  • Food Security. THP-Senegal’s interest in the benefits of “conservation farming” has grown over the course of the reporting period as it is a technique that combines the use of organic and mineral fertilizers to ensure the sustainability of production systems. As such, several trainings were implemented to disseminate the technique by training trainers of trainers.
  • Microfinance. In light of the Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest’s (BCEAO) newly established recognition requirements for microfinance institutions, several of THP-Senegal’s institutions were given an additional two years to reapply after reaching the new standards. THP-Senegal decided, instead of having each individual institution recognized, to group the epicenters in question (Ndereppe, Diokoul, Dinguiraye, Sam Contor and Sanar) around Mpal Epicenter’s Mutual Credit and Savings Facility. The necessary steps to reach this goal have been started in this last reporting period.
  • Safe Drinking Water and Hygiene Improvement. At Sam Contor Epicenter, four villages have celebrated construction of several latrines, in the presence of THP-Senegal’s officials and authorities of the decentralized administration local government. The THP-Senegal team has carried out a Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) campaign in Ndereppe, Dinguiraye and Sanar Epicenters. Based on several statistics, including estimates of medical expenses in case of infestation, this approach encourages communities to build household latrines and to adopt positive hygiene behaviours, such as hand washing with soap, water use in bathrooms and cleaning their surroundings.

 

September 9, 2013