Secure livelihoods for vulnerable youth in Senegal

We might be (a little) late… but as this is the first GlobalGiving report of 2022, we would still like to wish you and your loved ones Health, Joy and Happiness for the 11 months ahead!  Thank you for your ongoing support and for making sure every young person in Senegal has equal opportunities to fulfil their aspirations. We have exciting plans for 2022, including the registration of Aspyre Africa in Senegal, which will allow us to form the partnerships we need to scale up our work and secure its sustainability. But before we leap into 2022, let us share with you some of our milestones of 2021, so you can see how your donations directly impacted our young people’s lives! 

Through a partnership between the CIPA, USAID and Aspyre Africa, the technical training in horticulture of the next 2 groups of vulnerable young people was "covered" by USAID's "Feed the Future - Youth in Agriculture" programme. For these 2 groups Aspyre Africa would provide the vital additional support and services, which had been identified, developed and tested during our previous successful pilot projects working with vulnerable young people at the CIPA training centre: 

Through in-person visits to the Koranic schools, the Aspyre Africa/ CIPA team: 

• Strengthened relationships with Koranic teachers of Saint-Louis & built trust;
• Identified the training needs of the Koranic pupils (boys);
• Negotiated the training format to suit their lives and commitments. 

Through individual interviews and practical exercises, we selected the most motivated and suitable candidates for the training on offer. 

20 Koranic pupils were enrolled into horticulture training. 

Despite the ongoing challenges caused by the pandemic, the Aspyre Africa funded “Follow up & Integration Office” (CAI) at the CIPA continued to thrive and became a true hub of support for current and past trainees. 

“The 2021 cohort had a thirst for knowledge and were determined to succeed in this field.”(Nafissatou - in charge of the CAI)

Past trainees were given individual guidance and support throughout the year: e.g. 4 business plans were written, submitted to funding programmes, and approved. The CAI helped 2 others secure new jobs: one managing a farm, the other gardening for different private clients both in Dakar and Saint-Louis. One Koranic pupil, supervised by the CIPA team, managed to make a total profit of £250 rearing two flocks of chickens. This money helped him fund his own agricultural campaign back in his village. 

Breakfast was provided by Aspyre Africa for all Koranic pupils in training, to prevent them from having to skip classes to go and work to pay for their breakfast.  

In December 2021, 14 talibes successfully graduated 

“At the graduation ceremony, they were asked to present their Business Plans, elaborated during the training. The audience was really moved by the work done by these young people. We could feel the pride they felt about their achievements. 

Many would never have imagined ever being in a situation like this, where they suddenly had the chance to fulfil their dreams, of having a job and being able to support themselves.” Nafissatou

Vulnerable young people need the extra support to reach their goals, and it is donors like you who made this happen! We hope that together, we will be able to brighten the future of many more young people in 2022. 

As we launched into the new year, we started with the recrutement of the second group, consisting of both boys and girls this time. Most exciting is that we managed to involve key organisations and government services working with at risk young people in the process. We strongly believe that only by joining efforts will we be able to offer young people the coordinated support they deserve. 

In 2022 we further plan to: 

• Reach more vulnerable young people through new pilot projects, offering different skills, in different communities, with different partners
• Document all the lessons learned, so they can be shared
• Work with key partners to bring about long-term, sustainable change 

I would like to thank you once again for your ongoing support to the young people in Senegal. Together we are not just changing lives today, but also working on changing the system to guarantee equal opportunities for all young people tomorrow. Thank you for helping us make this a reality. 

In gratitude

Savina + The Aspyre Africa Team

As our second cohort of talibés is well underway with their training and on the road to success, we wanted to give you a quick update on how things are going.  While the course started off with literacy classes, market gardening and fruit growing were quickly added to their training schedule. The course also included a number of field visits, which the trainees thoroughly enjoyed.   

In the words of their group spokesman Boukhary: “We are really starting to master things. We can measure and prepare the land, we can do it all now. It’s going really well. The breakfasts provided have been a great help. We can make it to training on time without having to worry in the morning. The individual follow up to make sure we don’t miss classes and the individual calls to make sure we are ok, have truly motivated us to continue the training, which we really hope to finish. I think that in the future, we can become successful farmers, even if we don’t run big companies. We will be better off and will be able to provide for our families and ourselves in the future. I believe that if there is continued support in place, we stand a better chance of succeeding.”

In the words of their course supervisor Mr Ndione: “This training has offered them a real opportunity to integrate the work environment by providing them with a formal training. It is not always straightforward for us as we have to adapt the content to their level. Through a skills-based approach however we are able to teach them all they need to know through demonstrations and practice, rather than theory. We are teaching them to learn by doing! In regard to their commitment, they are truly diligent. The breakfasts and individual follow-up have been determining factors here. I would like to seize this opportunity to ask Aspyre Africa and its supporters to make sure we can continue to support these talibés all the way to secure livelihoods. Training is most important, but the road doesn’t end there. Many of them have opportunities to develop income generating activities in their villages, and we need to make sure they can do that.” 

Since our last report we have also made great progress in securing key partnerships that will allow us to scale up our work and contribute to systemic change. We should be able to share more details with you very soon. In the meantime however we wanted to let you know that our next GlobalGiving campaign will be a 24 hours ONLY event for #GivingTuesday, a day that encourages people to do good. So stay tuned and mark the 30th November in your diary.

Thank you for your trust and your continued support! 

With warm wishes,

The Aspyre Africa team