• Economic Empowerment Program
• Women's skills
• Micro-credit loans
• Urban agriculture
• Rural agriculture
• Wellness Program
• Feeding centers
• Clinics & counseling
• Prison ministry

The Women’s Skills Center is an effort to set the stage for the fulfillment of "abundant life". The specific objectives are to 1) create self-employment for young women, and 2) alleviate poverty. The center opened in October 1999 with an initial enrollment of 15 young women. In 2005, we decided to offer a cooking class to increase skills. In 2006 a pastry chef was hired for the cooking class. The skills now taught include embroidery, French literacy (which are also offered in the prisons), sewing, knitting, quilting, batik dyeing, tie-dyeing, painting on cloth, and entrepreneurship.

After the completion of the 3 year program, a sewing machine is given to each graduating student. We also offer a follow-up program to encourage the young ladies in their small businesses and to give technical support.

Tie-dyeing instruction

Decorated cloth for sale

We started the program in February 1999 with a group of 45 poor women in a large section of Dakar called Parcelles Assaines. Objectives of the program are 1) to give women more choices in their lives, 2) to give women access to credit, and 3) to enable women to be productive members of society. Today, the program has grown to 25 Associations totaling about 450 women.

The literacy rate among women in Senegal is only 25%. In many of the groups none of the women can read and write. In 2002 we offered free French Literacy classes to anyone interested. The women participants are engaged in various businesses. Buying and selling in the market, tailors making mostly women's clothing, restaurants on the street under trees or in the market (open air), tie-dyeing fabrics, drying and smoking fish just to name a few.

Florence Yeboah and Julianna Obeng - successful businesswomen

Women's association at Louly

The concept of rooftop gardening came to us as we observed that the high population density of Dakar and other major cities makes land unavailable for agriculture. But most houses have spacious terraces (flat cement roofs) which are underutilized.

We started the rooftop gardening program in July 1999 with a demonstration rooftop garden at our multi-purpose center in Dakar. The objectives are to 1) promote nutrition and food security 2) promote self-employment 3) promote good health.

So far, we have trained ten groups of community people in the rooftop gardening technology in Dakar. We have also trained a group of people in both Thies and Mbour. Thies and Mbour are cities 1 and 2 hours by road from Dakar respectively.

The rural agriculture program was started to help farmers access water. It has also become part of the micro-credit program. Rural farmers are assisted in two ways. In villages where there is a borehole we give loans to farmers which allow them to access water from the borehole. They must pay for fuel to run the water pump and the loans are also used to construct basins for water storage. In areas where there are no wells near by, we dig wells that can assist as many as 50 families.

The average depth for wells is 15 meters approximately 50 feet. Some wells require 26 - 30 meters which is approximately 100 feet. The wells are dug manually and take between 20 - 30 days to finish depending on the difficulties encountered.

A bissap field at Sessene

Yaka Diouf, Gana Sene and Latir Sene in their Onion Field in Pecc Maxa

The EMUS mission has opened children's feeding centers in three towns (St. Louis, Thies and Kaolack) and two villages (Pecc Maxa and Fimela). Each center provides a subscribing group of children milk and nourishing food three days each week. The mothers of the children attend short seminars on childcare and nutrition subjects to improvee the health of their families. The mothers take turns preparing the food using supplies provided by the church. The largest center serves fifty children, many of whom are thriving only because of this augmentation of their diets.

A highly visible outreach mission of the EMUS is the Wellness program's traveling medical clinics.

The EMUS prison ministry works with women's prisons in and around Dakar. Most women inmates are either awaiting trial or serving sentences connected with their weak educational and economic standing (drug smuggling, trafficking, prostitution). The ministry to these women focuses on:

1. Monitoring the progress of cases within the legal system. The ministry ensures that the due process is carried out in a timely fashion.
2. Reconciling inmates to their families. The Islamic-dominated culture sees incarceration as a grevious shame on the entire family. Families often simply disown and refuse to acknowledge the inmate, leaving her without a home or hope upon her eventual release. The ministry visits families and attempts to reconcile them and the inmate, urging forgiveness and love for the benefit of all.
3. Skills training. The inmate's educational and economic resources must be bolstered if she is to live without continuing illegal activities. The ministry provides skills instruction in sewing and French literacy to give the inmates hope and new opportunities upon their release.
4. Nutrition and support. Prison life is harsh. Nutrition is especially poor. The ministry provides special meals at least monthly to sustain the inmates' health, as well as communicate that they have not been forgotten and are of active concern to the EMUS.

Prison living conditions are harsh

Prison ministry team (l-r): Awa Mane, Marietou Balde, Joseph Bleck, Ndeye Fatou Diouf and Sophie Diop