Polish aid

Since 2017, the Good Factory Foundation has supported the vocational school for girls, Foyer s. Maria Goretti, ran by Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. The school is attended by girls aged 17-23. They are residents of rural, poor neighbourhoods in Dakar, daughters of economic migrants from Guinea-Bissau. For them, education with the sisters is a chance to find work, but it is also an escape from poverty, hopelessness, the need for further emigration and, what is more, a chance for the stability necessary to start a family.

We had a dream that our students would have even more opportunities and that they would also learn sewing, the basics of entrepreneurship and law. We wanted to give them the means to enter the labour market with confidence and have the courage to launch their business ideas.

We have compiled a list of needs, developed methods for meeting them, and entered the Polish Development Aid 2019 competition organised by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ideas that motivated us all convinced the selection committee, which awarded us a two-year grant to implement our plans.

We used the funds received to renovate virtually the entire school. We equipped kitchens, classrooms and students’ rooms. We bought computers, teaching aids, sewing machines, professional embroidery machines and provided the school library with essential textbooks and readings. A new car also appeared in the school car park, as the Foyer had had no means of transport so far.

But that’s not all! We conducted many training courses on small project management, budgeting and accounting basics, crowned by establishing a cooperative that teaches entrepreneurship to our trainees in a practical way. We added a third year of practical classes to the two-year course, where the girls create their brand and enter the local market with homemade preserves and textiles under its banner.

Outside the school, we erected a wooden workshop, specially imported from Poland, in which the students sew clothes, bags, aprons, etc. The workshop has become a local attraction. Besides fulfilling its primary function, it also attracts many curious people – potential customers. The girls’ beautiful sewing creations can be bought in the school’s newly-built boutique-café while enjoying delicious cooking products and aromatic coffee. No guest leaves with empty bags or an empty belly.

The revolution in Foyer gives us hope for an even better and more secure future for girls. But this is not the end of the story! There are new challenges ahead. As well as maintaining the school, we want to expand the educational offer further.

We convince our students that they deserve a good education and a decent job no matter how poor their backgrounds are. We equip them with the means necessary to change their own and their family’s social status and, once transformed, we let them out into the world, supporting them wholeheartedly!

 

Good Factory Foundation – “Increasing educational and professional opportunities for young women – modernisation of vocational schools in Dakar and Joal, Senegal”, Module 2019 (funding amount PLN 654,524), Module 2020 (approx. PLN 680,000)

 

Prepared by Jarosław Martynko, Good Factory Foundation