Mimi Diedhiou, teacher and ambitious transformer in Senegal

USAID 60th anniversary

Women’s Empowerment and Entrepreneurship in Senegal

USAID has been in Senegal since the passing of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 which effectively established the Agency to combine the efforts of various foreign assistance programs. For these past six decades USAID has worked together with Senegal and its development partners to create sustainable solutions to economic challenges. A key component to this partnership is to encourage and support the economic growth of women to improve the everyday lives of Senegalese families. In celebration of the 60 year anniversary of USAID in Senegal, the stories of eight women who have benefited from USAID activities and projects in the country are featured.

Mimi Diedhiou, teacher and ambitious transformer in Senegal

Mimi Diedhiou is a teacher that is respected and beloved by her students. She is motivated by a strong desire for entrepreneurship and a will to help her communities get higher quality nutritious food. Kounkané, a village in Haute-Casamance in southern Senegal, is facing a problem of low meat supplyl, but Mimi saw this challenge and turned it into an opportunity.

With the support of Feed the Future Senegal Kawolor, Mimi took her stock of ten chickens, which was barely enough to feed her own family, and increased and diversified her flock through a breeding program. In turn, she has been able to support her friends and colleagues. She explains, “[The Feed the Future Senegal] Kawolor activity taught me about financial education. The activity’s support and training have enabled me to teach women how to secure procurement costs [and] to strengthen my entrepreneurial spirit.”

From the income she has earned from breeding, she has acquired land, built a house and supported her family. The project also teaches entrepreneurs how to make paper packaging that is more environmentally friendly and adds product value. And through its partnerships has provided the opportunity to participate in agricultural trade fairs that improve visibility and expand clientele.

Mimi is also the treasurer of the Economic Interest Group Sainte Marthe specializing in the transformation of cereals into flour. ‘We wanted to be the champions of transformation!’, declared the women of Sainte Marthe who are proud to be on the path to excellence since 2018, when they began their training with Feed the Future Senegal Kawolor project to make compound flour with germination to optimize micro nutrients.

The high-quality, protein-rich Obatanpa maize is called “white gold” by Mimi and her colleagues. The blended flour is of better quality and is effective at treating children’s nutritional deficiencies. From 2018 to 2020, over 40 thousand kilograms of blended flour were produced by Sainte Marthe. The flour was distributed to children between the ages of 6 and 23 months.

Nowadays Sainte Marthe has won the trust of organisations such as Caritas, Tiers Sud, or World Vision. And now Mimi and Sainte Marthe women are unstoppable: ‘We nurture the ambition to export our products abroad!’ Their determination to contribute to a better nutrition in the country is combined with an ever-growing entrepreneurial spirit.