THE 99 WOMEN PROJECT in SENEGAL: 99 stories, a play, a film
The 99 WOMEN PROJECT in SÉNÉGAL is a unique and ambitious opportunity for the 11 000 rural women entrepreneurs supported by Entrepreneurs du Monde in southern Senegal to express and value their successes, their participation in the economy and society, and their desire to initiate about vital changes.
The project gives a voice to fifty rural women entrepreneurs to make known and recognize what they are and what they already do, but also their dreams and challenges. Their life stories and future projects will be collected and will serve as a basis for the writing, by about fifty other women, more urban, of a multilingual play (Wolof, Pulaar, Diola and French) which will be staged and performed in several villages in Senegal. A documentary film will trace the individual and collective experience of these women who express themselves, exchange and project themselves together towards a desirable future.
Thanks to our partners Axa Senegal and the Anber Foundation!
January 2023: stage 2 of the project started!
After a first phase (July – September) of collecting oral testimonies, during which 70 rural women entrepreneurs shared their personal and professional life stories, the writing phase has been underway since November.
The objective: to transform the verbatims collected into a hundred short texts, in Wolof (local language) and in French, to then compose a play, in a collaborative way.
30 urban women from Ziguinchor and Dakar therefore participate in this writing, during several workshops. They thus discover the life and demands of their rural counterparts. By crossing the stories, these women enrich the debate, deepen their reflection, and highlight the singularity of each story, and of each person involved.
Some news about the second stage of the project – Video in French
Stage of the 99 Women Senegal project :
The project takes place in 4 stages between July 2022 and June 2023. Throughout this period, the filming of a documentary is underway to tell the individual and collective transformation initiated during the project.
July – November 2022:
Collection of life stories of 50 rural entrepreneurs representative of the diversity of those supported by Entrepreneurs du Monde.
November 2022 – January 2023:
Transcription into theater monologues, by 30 more urban, more integrated women.
February – March 2023:
Composition of a play in a collaborative way, by 8 women, to build a collective narrative that will speak to everyone.
May-June 2023 :
Presentation of the play in the villages to stimulate debate.
Impacts of the project
The project will contribute to the empowerment of women, with 5 levers:
– Community: it will promote women’s expression, recognition and participation in decision-making and change in the villages. Encourage the sharing of experiences, strengthen solidarity between women and the feeling of belonging to a network of mutual aid and resources. Encourage meetings, action and leadership.
– Economic: it will value the work of rural women, their potential, their contribution to the wealth of the country. It will also help some women to take their business to the next level, thanks to the bridges built with women entrepreneurs in the cities involved in the project.
– Cultural: it will contribute to change mentalities by bringing women’s word to a large and varied public, through theater and video. It will improve understanding and cooperation between women of different ethnicities, casts and religions, and between rural and urban women.
– Educational: to use the content expressed during the project to improve or create training modules that respond perfectly to the needs expressed by the women.
– Notoriety: to make these women and the action of Entrepreneurs du Monde known outside of Senegal, in order to value them and to give the association the means to accompany a greater number of poor women entrepreneurs.