RFI: LIFE supports rural women entrepreneurs in Senegal

In this third episode of the programme "Un jour au village" on RFI, journalist Kpenahi Traoré takes her listeners back to the Sine-Saloum to meet young women trained by the Keur Yakaar project, which is supported by LIFE. It is a powerful account of returning to the village and of rural entrepreneurship.

Leaving the city to go home to the village

In Senegal, more than 43% of young people aged 15 to 24 in rural areas are not in employment, education or training. Faced with this reality, projects such as Keur Yakaar, meaning "the house of hope" in Wolof, offer real prospects. Supported by LIFE and the Swiss NGO Tereo, the programme helps young people, most of them women, through free training courses covering agroecology, hospitality, livestock farming and baking.

Awa Sanokho: poultry farming as a life plan

Awa Sanokho, 26, left Dakar after her father died and returned to Samba Diallo, the village where she was born. Thanks to Keur Yakaar's training and funding of 400,000 FCFA (about 609 euros), she was able to set up a chick-rearing business, becoming the only poultry farmer in her village. " It's the villagers who buy my chicks, and that encourages me.. " she says. Her business not only lets her support herself and help her mother, but also repay the loan she was given, all while inspiring the young girls of her region.

LIFE, a committed partner on the ground

For Emile Badji, director of the Keur Yakaar centre, the goal is clear: to offer lasting alternatives to migration. LIFE's grant keeps the training free and makes it possible to build pathways tailored to each young person. With this support, vocations are born, projects take shape and, above all, lives are changed.

🎧 Listen to the episodes, or listen again, here

👉 episode 1

👉 episode 2