Entrepreneur:  Diétou Cissé
Group:  Taku Ligueye
Village:  Oussouye

“I don't have anything special to say, I only bless you and your foreign friends for this support. You're contributing to the fight against poverty because today our children will tell you that they're proud of their parents; and it's because you've helped us to have the means to satisfy their needs. God will pay you for this.”

Entrepreneur:  Sophie Bernadette Cabo
Group:  Kadiamor
Village:  Diouru

“Thanks to SEM, we’ve obtained a loan which has enabled us to launch profitable business activities in order to better provide for the needs of our families. This loan has allowed us improve our earnings by producing products which we sell in the local market. Right now, all of our group is working with good humor, because the motivation is there.”

Entrepreneur:  Adrien Coly
Group:  Diokoo
Village:  Ngaparou

“Always before, I’ve had trouble paying for my children’s school fees and books. I think that with this loan I’ll be able to increase my income and fix this problem. If everything goes well, I’ll continue to participate in the loan program until I’ve saved and invested enough to fly with my own wings.”

Entrepreneur: Maimona Ndour
Group:  Ndiofor
Village:  Palmarin

“The members of our group have now become the nutritionists of the village, because the loan that we’ve received from SEM has allowed the villagers to supply themselves with vegetables and other food items that couldn’t be found in the village before we started our business. For this reason we thank you very much.”

Entrepreneur:  Thomas Diatta
Group: Batiaye
Village:  Carabane

“You can see that we’re now a new business with new equipment, which makes us proper fishermen. In order to be a fisherman, you’ve got to have good equipment in order to make good catches... For the moment, thank God, everything is going very well. At any rate, we’ll never stop thanking all the SEM team.”

Entrepreneur: Fatou Seye Diallo
Group: Sant ak Koolute,
Village:  Yoff

“The tourist season has begun all over Senegal now. The moment has arrived for us to launch our activities so that we’ll be able to display our products in the hotels and other areas frequented by tourists. Today, traditional cloth dying is a very good thing for everyone here, especially for us Senegalese who don’t have much money, but nevertheless we can use our cloth-dying art to change the colors and designs of our clothes whenever we want. As for our business revenue, it has always been fruitful, and will be even more so this year because we’ve benefited from this loan, which strengthened our ability to make investments in our business that will allow us to make a lot more profits.”

Entrepreneur: Fiacre Gabriel Diedhiou
Group: Dikasofoor
Village:  Diouru

“We’ve begun to purchase seafood and forest products from the Casamance region, which we’ve sold to retailers in the markets of Dakar and the other large cities of Senegal. Right now all the members of our group have work, which wasn’t the case before we benefited from this SEM loan. We all have hope since we received this loan. We’ve improved our standard of living, because we now have profitable business activities which help us to provide for the needs of our families.”

Entrepreneur: Awa Gueye
Group: Jabboot
Village:  Ker gu Mag

“Thanks to SEM, we have now begun to put in place the materials we needed to carry out our business of retailing school supplies and cloth for skirts, blankets, etc. ; and we can now also carry out marketing of various local products and foodstuffs. Since we’ve received funds from SEM, we firmly expect that our business will be a success. In any case, everyone is satisfied and very happy to benefit from this program which is very welcome, and to which we wish a long life!”

Entrepreneur: Liliane Saona
Group: Taku Liguey
Village:  Oussouye

“The most important change has been that for the beginning of school this year, we haven’t had any trouble buying new school shirts for our children, as well as books and school supplies. These expenses had always been a great worry for us before, but thanks to the profits we earned from our business, we were able to overcome these problems.”

Entrepreneur: Georgette Manga
Group: Kalee Jiwent
Village:  Oussouye

“Since we received the SEM loan, our everyday life has changed a lot, because we have commercial activities that allow us to make money to meet our own needs and also take care of our children, as well as helping our husbands with school fees and food for the household. We are able to eat until our hunger is satisfied without worrying and without being afraid that some creditor will come looking for an overdue debt. We all thank SEM for being an organization that supports people in the fight against poverty in rural areas. I’m truly satisfied with the work of SEM, and my colleagues are also happy to have the chance to work without constraints, with an organization that is there to help the less fortunate.”

Entrepreneur: Amy Ndiaye
Group: Jabbot
Village:  Ker Gu Mag

“This is the first time I’ve ever had a loan. Before, it was very difficult to obtain a loan in our town, because you had to be able to put up collateral. But with SEM, we’ve received credit with no problem and that has allowed me to become financially independent today, because I manage to meet the household expenses that come up without having to ask my husband for money. Now, we produce traditional cloth skirts and hand-embroidered clothing, which we sell at the national level thanks to the SEM loan, which has allowed us to purchase a stock of sewing and dying materials.”