SENEGAL

The Support Project for the Development of Female Entrepreneurship and Youth Employment (PADEF-EJ) coordinator, Mame Thierno Gueye and the Governor of Senegal's Louga region, El Hadj Bouya Amar, on Wednesday, August 9th 2023, officially launched an ultra-modern health center in the Keur Serigne Louga district. The health center includes an ambulance, two reception rooms, offices, treatment, observation and hospitalization rooms. The medical post also has a maternity ward, pharmacy, and staff accommodations. Millennium Promise Alliance is supporting PADEF-EJ by providing technical assistance, and implementation of the infrastructures and services components including the establishment of the new health post. The new health infrastructures are a result of a partnership between PADEF-EJ and the Association of Residents of the Keur Serigne Louga district. The center will solve a great obstacle of lack of quality healthcare for the surrounding communities. The center and medical expertise have been well received as up to now, more than 1,700 people have been consulted by practitioners. The health center is also contributing to a reduction in home births, thus far, 27 women haven given birth in the new maternity ward. The project coordinator, Mame Thierno Gueye, declared that PADEF-EJ embraces the State's vision based on the observation that Senegal is faced with a deficit in terms of basic social infrastructure, particularly health. "As part of PADEF-EJ, in partnership with Millennium Promise, the project continued an initiative of emigrants from the Keur Serigne Louga Sud district who had already started to build this building," informed Mr. Gueye. He points out that "the position has made it possible to solve a good part of the problems of home birth in the Keur Seringe Louga district and the surrounding districts".

The Support Project for Women's Development and Entrepreneurship and Youth Employment (PADEF-EJ) will soon provide women in the Louga region with an agricultural shopping center and a cereal processing unit worth an estimated 168 million FCFA, as shared on Monday, August 7th, 2023, by head of its value chain, Ms. Seynabou Dia. “We have just visited two infrastructures, an agricultural shopping center and a cereal processing unit, built by PADEF-EJ, which will be made available to women in the Louga region in the coming months,” she declared. Speaking after a visit to these two infrastructures, Ms. Dia indicated that "the rate of execution of the works of the processing unit is at 75%, while that of the agricultural shopping center is at 78%.” These two infrastructures, she said, will be delivered within two months. The cereal processing unit, which is located in the Medina Salam district, is made up of a warehouse for storing raw materials, a processing room, a packaging room, a product storage room, an office for the producers, a point of sale and housing for the concierge. The agricultural shopping center, which is located in the Montagne extension district, it is made up of 60 stores, stalls, and a hall for women to market and sell products more efficiently. Ms. Seynabou Dia specified that, "the beneficiaries are exclusively women from economic interest groups selected on the basis of criteria validated by the regional committee headed by the governor of the Louga region".

Millennium Promise Alliance attends the IsDB 2023 RRVCP Midterm Review Workshop which took place March 16-18 in Dakar, Senegal

The Support Project for the Development of Female Entrepreneurship and Youth Employment (PADEF-EJ), under the supervision of the Republic of Senegal's Ministry of Women, Family, Gender and Child Protection and co-financed by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), aims to contribute to the improvement of the economic and social conditions of women and girls. In fact, as part of its “Infrastructures and Services” component, it built midwife housing and developed market gardening areas in the Louga region (Senegal). These are five (05) dwellings which are registered in the health sub-sector and whose construction works have been completed. Each accommodation has two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a toilet and a family space. Thus, before making them available to beneficiaries, the project organized a field mission. This, to proceed with the provisional acceptance of each of them and visit the perimeter of Sague-Sathiel in the municipality of Léona (Louga). This field mission, which took place from September 9 to 10, 2020 in Louga, was led by the PADEF-EJ monitoring and evaluation manager, Mr. Ismaïla Badji. It is composed of Mr. Fallou Ndiaye, project manager at the National Fund for the Promotion of Female Entrepreneurship (FNPEF), the technical supervision of PADEF-EJ; by Mame Thierno Guèye, administrative and financial manager of PADEF-EJ and Ms. Ndiémé Koba Sonko, monitoring-evaluation assistant of PADEF-EJ. In Louga, the mission was accompanied by Mr. Mahécor Diouf, Millennium Promise Alliance (MPA) project manager; Mamadou Cissé, regional director of community development and promotion of equity in Louga; and Abdoulaye Niang, agent at the regional town planning service of Louga. On the spot, the head of the mission and his delegation went first to the Louga governance for a courtesy visit. Here, they met the Deputy Governor in charge of development, Modou Thiam. They introduced him to the mission and its purpose. The state authority, in turn, welcomed the visit and committed to supporting the project for the benefit of the populations of the region. Then, the mission headed for the Regional Directorate for Community Development and Equity Promotion (DRDCPE) of Louga, located at the said Governance. Here too, the delegation met the director Mamadou Cissé to present the purpose of the mission. The team went to the headquarters of the NGO Millennium Promise Alliance, where they were welcomed by Mahécor Diouf, Millennium Promise Alliance (MPA) project manager who is in charge of the implementation of the “Infrastructures and Services” component of PADEF- EJ in the area. Here too, there was a presentation session and a short briefing between the project team and MPA. Many achievements have seen the light of day thanks to PADEF-EJ In Léona, the mission team, after meeting the mayor Mamadou Ba and the population to present them the objective of the mission, headed for the health post of the locality to visit and provisionally take delivery of the Midwife accommodation that has been built there, in the presence of the beneficiary. The councilor of Léona, for his part, expressed a feeling of satisfaction. "I am very happy because, if we have created 5 housing units for the benefit of Midwives here in Louga and come to visit them before their reception, we can only be delighted". According to Mamadou Ba, this infrastructure has been added to a long list of achievements in all sectors that PADEF-EJ has carried out in his commune. "It will allow you to have autonomy in work and be close to your family" After the town of Léona, it is the turn of the Potou health post to host the mission. Received on site by the midwife Hélène Diouf, she proceeded, here too, to the provisional acceptance of the accommodation. Very satisfied, the beneficiary, who has been in service in the post since 2016, maintained that this accommodation came at the right time. Because it will not only bring a certain autonomy in the work but also allow the midwife to be close to her family at all times. Thus, Hélène Diouf warmly thanked PADEF-EJ for everything it does for the benefit of health. In Sague-Sathiel, PADEF-EJ did not only provide accommodation for Midwives. He also created a market gardening perimeter for the grouping of women from the locality and surroundings. This is why, before visiting and provisionally receiving said accommodation which was built just behind the health post, the mission first wanted to meet and discuss with these brave women in order to collect their impressions and comments on the said market gardening perimeter. since the start of its operation. Boosted production and financial autonomy for women ensured The mission also visited the market gardening perimeter under the leadership of the MP project manager and the president of the Sague-Sathiel women's group, Ms. Aminata Ba. In this one-hectare field, developed by PADEF-EJ with a drip irrigation system that works with solar energy, the women `` And Jappo Liggeye '' horticulture throughout the year. 'year. They produce all kinds of vegetables during the rainy season as well as in the off-season. This allowed them, according to Ms. Ba, to boost their production and have financial autonomy. “We are very happy today. Because in the past we spent the whole day under the palaver tree. But today, since the project came, we have all found work, ”suggested the president of the said women's group. According to him, in this field, the women cultivate Onion, Pepper, Carrot, Tomato, Okra, and other vegetables throughout the year. And at the end of each production, they can harvest dozens or even a hundred bags, which are sold in the local market to meet their needs. Mrs. Aminata Ba reports that her group includes 300 women today, of whom more than a hundred are active in the field. And the others are waiting for the Potou-Médine track to be completed to facilitate their movement around the market gardening perimeter because they live in the surrounding villages. At the end of this visit, the mission also met the Inter-negoce distribution company in charge of the construction of this track to discuss the state of progress of the work. This is a track of several kilometers and which was also financed by PADEF-EJ within the framework of its “Infrastructures and Services” component. The midwife's accommodation built inside the Ndialakhar Samb health post was also visited and provisionally accepted by the mission as well as that of the Syer health post. "A very frank collaboration that we would like others to follow" PADEF-EJ, as part of its achievements in the region, collaborates with the Regional Directorate of Community Development and Promotion of Equity in Louga. A collaboration which has been magnified and given due recognition by the director. "It is a very frank collaboration that we welcome and of which we would also like the other interventions of other sectors to follow their model", underlined Mamadou Cissé. For him, of all the programs and projects that intervene in his area, it is PADEF-EJ that he masters best. Because, he adds, “he involves us in all their missions at regional level”. And this allows him, at his level, to inform the Ministry of Community Development. These accommodations will "improve the working conditions of midwives as well as the quality of their services" The regional director of community development and the promotion of equity of Louga, moreover, maintained that these midwife housing will improve the working conditions of the beneficiaries as well as the quality of their services at their level. health post. "Contribute to improving the economic and social living conditions of women and girls" As a reminder, PADEF / EJ is financed under a loan agreement between the Government of Senegal and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). Its general objective is to "contribute to improving the economic and social living conditions of women and girls by facilitating access to credit, developing infrastructure and support services for production, value and capacity building ”. Thus, in order to strengthen the achievements of Phase I of the “Millennium Villages” Project and complete the achievement of the MDGs, the Government of Senegal, in partnership with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) through the National Fund for Promotion of Female Entrepreneurship (FNPEF) has, within the framework of PADEF / EJ, made available to the “Millennium Villages” Project funding intended for the implementation of activities of the “Infrastructures and Services” component in the sectors of Health, Education, Agriculture, Rural Infrastructure-Energy-Water-Hygiene and Fisheries. Source: https://www.seneweb.com/news/Societe/padef-ej-le-ministere-de-la-femme-realis_n_328965.html

As part of the implementation of activities in the ARC REPLICA 2020 Project (January to September 2020) in the Louga region of Senegal, Millennium Promise Alliance supports the operational implementation of activities for our partner NGO, OXFAM ; members of the Start Network. The response consists of distributing cash (scholarships) by means of cash transfer, and carrying out activities for the detection and treatment of malnutrition, education and awareness of nutrition and hygiene. These social operations cover 22,177 vulnerable people in the Louga region, including 15,302 people in the Kébémer and 6,875 people in Linguère. The activities focused initially on the choice of beneficiaries (communes, villages, household) and secondly on the distribution of scholarships for target households and flour for the targeted children and women. The operation took place in two phases in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, in the operational implementation of the activities, sensitization of the communities were initiated regarding social distancing and barrier gestures with the systematic use of masks. Beneficiaries were also distributed and informed on the usage of hydro-alcoholic gel and installations of wash-hand basins were completed at designated distribution points. Two community radio platforms (one in Kébémer and one in Dahra) also covered the activities to increase awareness. For more information, please watch the video below as well as photos:

The right to health and well-being is a fundamental right. This is the main motivation for the series of social mobilizations organized as part of the health component of our Millennium Villages Project in Potou.From May 7th to May 14th 2018, a team from our Millenium Villages project, headed by Mr. Djiby Sy, in charge of infrastructure (Water, sanitation, hygiene), traveled the villages of Longhor, Thiaréne, Ndiamb Fall, Ndialégne and Taré in the region of Louga in Senegal with the mission of sensitizing communities on good hygiene behaviors, ultimately aiming at reducing diarrheal diseases and cases of malnutrition in these areas.

Originally from Mboro, it is in Léona, in the region of Louga that she chose to fully commit in community health. Aminata Diop is passionate about communication who uses the community radio of Léona FM as an awareness tool. She believes that "in terms of professional challenges, women are just as capable as men".Being the first woman appointed head of post in Léona, the practitioner is available 24 hours a day for the local population who widely appreciates it as evidenced by the four children that were given her name.

Last week, our Millennium Village Project in Potou was visited by a team from the project Supporting the Development of Women Entrepreneurship and Youth Employment (PADEF-EJ) from May 14th to 16th.The team consisted of M. Ismaila BADJI, Monitoring-Evaluation Manager of PADEF-EJ, M. Malang BODIAN, Administrative and Financial Officer of PADEF-EJ, Mrs. Ndiemeh K SONKO Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant of PADEF-EJ and the representative of the Cooperation and External Financing Department (DCFE).