Blog #5
Inauguration ceremony for the project's own center – a milestone
On April 18, 2025, the new training center was officially inaugurated in the suburbs of Dakar—an impressive moment that almost the entire board of the Swiss support association was able to attend.
The Taxawu Jigeen building stands out visibly in the neighborhood, and at the same time, the project is firmly anchored in the local community. As a result, the inauguration ceremony was met with great support.
The confident contributions of the project participants, including a fashion show, a performance, and a speech, were particularly moving. One young woman described the significance of the project:
« Nous sommes devenues des apprenantes, de futures entrepreneures, des femmes debout en chemin vers l’autonomie. Ce que vous voyez ici n’est pas seulement un bâtiment. C’est une porte ouverte sur notre avenir (…). »
“We have become learners, future entrepreneurs, women standing tall on the path to independence. What you see here is not just a building. It is a door opening onto our future (...).”
The young woman's words perfectly express the significance of the Taxawu Jigeen training project – “the woman who stands tall.”
The program also featured speeches by Mbaye Sène, our local coordinator, Abdoulaye Keïta, the director, and various dignitaries. In her speech, Rosita Rudin, president of the Taxawu Jigeen support association, particularly emphasized and expressed her gratitude for the great daily commitment and professional competence on site.
With its own building, the training project now has significantly improved space, opening up new opportunities for teaching and further development in general: with the new, expanded kitchen, the course in catering and service could be added, and with the space for raised beds, the project participants can once again learn “Agriculture sur table” – an opportunity to grow vegetables for their own use or for sale. So it continues, with the same extraordinary commitment from the team in Senegal that we have come to expect in recent years.
Incidentally, the entire inauguration ceremony was broadcast by several television stations – a lively insight can be gained from a report published on Youtube.
Images: Harald Beck