Secure livelihoods for vulnerable youth in Senegal

Dear Friends,

It is with great excitement that we can announce that the building of the chicken coop has finally started! As you can see, some of our talibes have not hesitated to offer support to the builders to speed up the process. We are looking forward to seeing the finished building, and launch the next phase of the project when we get to Saint-Louis the first week of June.

Meanwhile, the major construction works at the CIPA training centre are also reaching completion! The new classrooms should be up and running very soon, and ready to welcome our new cohort of trainees. The centre is waiting for the Minister to set a date for the official inauguration. Hopefully we will be able to attend the grand opening in person.

Other great news is that the CIPA centre has secured the needed funding for the training fees for our next cohort of talibes. We will therefore be continuing our crowdfunding efforts through GlobalGiving in July to secure our part to cover the breakfasts, tools, as well as salaries, travel and communication expenses for both the social worker and the career advisor.

We are looking forward to giving you a full update from Senegal when we return from our trip. If you would like to get the latest news and pictures, make sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

Thank you for your continued support and warm wishes,

The Aspyre Africa Team

As I am writing this report, we are impatiently awaiting the results of the presidential elections, which took place in Senegal last Sunday. Whatever the outcome, our hope is that the country will continue to keep young people as a top priority on its agenda.

Update Talibes Cohort 1

At the end of last year our local partner organisation AJE locally secured the needed funds for the building of the chicken coop, and have since taken over the responsibility of the construction work. We are eagerly waiting for the coop to be finished, so we can launch the next phase of the project.

Update Talibes Cohort 2

You may have noticed from a picture in our previous report that our partner, the CIPA agriculture training centre, has been undergoing some major transformations. It will soon be the flagship training centre in the region thanks to the support of KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency). This means that our next cohort will now benefit from brand new classrooms and equipment. The centre has also acquired extra land for training and will soon have its very own bus.

This is a very exciting development, but has no doubt been the cause of some delays in submitting the final proposal for government funding for the next cohort. With further administrative delays most probably linked to the preparations of the presidential elections, it was clear that our next cohort would not be able to start before late spring/ early summer.

For this reason, we decided to postpone our “End of year campaign” and focus our fundraising efforts on the GlobalGiving “Little by Little" campaign which will run from the 8th to the 12th of April 2019. During the campaign, GlobalGiving will be matching donations and giving out bonus prizes, as well as matching new recurring donations. So if you would like to continue supporting our work, please don’t do anything now, but stay tuned…

We look forward to sharing detailed personal testimonies as soon as the coop is up and running!

Thank you for your continued support.

Warm wishes, Savina