Education Women without a school education are given employment opportunities in the Senegalese baking sector

    “I wasn’t able to go to school. I had never thought that one day I would take part in a training programme, train as a baker and find a job.” When Khady Diouf was a child, her parents told her that going to school was not for girls. She learned how to cook, clean and do the laundry and her family expected her to become a good housewife. The older she became, the more she wanted to be independent and stand on her own two feet.

    Khady Diouf in a bakery

    Khady Diouf in a bakery

    Khady Diouf, now aged 26, even considered training with the Senegalese army because, without any formal school qualifications, she did not have many options. Diouf, who is from a rural area near Ngaparou on Senegal’s west coast, is far from being the only one in that situation. In rural areas of Senegal many women are looking for work but cannot get an apprenticeship place or find a job.

    Some women like Khady Diouf have now found employment at Mburu, a baking chain using regional grain varieties such as sorghum and maize, tuber vegetables and seasonal fruit, thereby strengthening local value chains. The BMZ is supporting Mburu by providing further training for dozens of staff on the differences between different raw materials and baking products, the advantages of local grain varieties, the use of technical equipment and the basics of selling.