Presentation Dossier Projecte Tabassaye Sumari
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Projecte Tabassaye Presentation Dossier Projecte Tabassaye Sumari What is it? 4 Setting the scene 6 The projecte’s values and objectives 10 Strategy and actions within senegal: healthcare, education and economic development 12 How projecte tabassaye functions 22 Communications: dissemination, promotion and diffusion 26 The budget and finances 28 Projecte Tabassaye What is it? The Projecte was initiated in the village of Tabassaye Manding (one of the villages in the noted commune) and it is for this reason that the Projecte is so named. The Association consists of three legally PROJECTE TABASSAYE is a healthcare independent parts; In June 2017 we created Association that, under the motto of the Association’s Catalan and Swiss branches, CURE, LOVE and EMPOWER, has as and as of January 2108 the Tabassaye Manding its principal objective the promotion of branch, in Senegal, was established. The three the health, economic and educational Association’s coordinate their efforts in order to development of the people living in the achieve the Projecte’s objectives. Commune of Dabo, in the Kolda region of upper Casamance, in Senegal. With this goal in mind a local group in Senegal consisting of six people has been created to work “on the ground”. Meanwhile we are looking for partners in Europe that can help us obtain the economic resources that the Projecte need. 4 Projecte Tabassaye How it all started: “We were simply going to a wedding!” In February 2017, Denis and Griselda Fornes, brother and sister, he resident in Barcelona and she in Switzerland, travelled to Senegal as wedding guests of their friend of many years Bacary Kondjira, a young Mandinka who had been resident in the Catalan town of Mataro. When the siblings arrived in Tabassaye, the groom’s native village, they were welcomed with great affection but they also quickly perceived that the situation that the community lived under was very tenuous. The village has enough resources to subsist, but it is a bare minimum. Nevertheless, the population lives quietly and is happy: if everyone is in good health and if they have enough to eat they are thankful and move on with their lives. But what happens if someone has an accident or falls ill? It is in these circumstances that problems really begin. Problems that for us are not serious, but in The grapevine quickly spread the news that Senegal the situation can become very grave, the European guests were taking the ill to perhaps even leading to death, from the lack the doctor and a snowball effect developed: of medical help and proper hygiene. These everyday dozens of sick villagers appeared shortcomings quickly became evident. On the before their cabin, people who needed first night of the wedding celebration Denis medical attention. Many of these people had and Griselda encountered a man whose suffered for years from ailments, that treated hand had been infected for several days in a timely manner, would have been easily because of a lack of medical resources. On cured. the following day they met Ibrahima Diallo, a 14-year old boy whose legs were covered with Faced with this healthcare emergency, the infected ulcers, a chronic condition that had Denis and Griselda saw very clearly the lasted for more than four years, as he was situation: they could not turn their backs on unable to see a doctor for lack of economic the reality of the challenge, they had to take resources. Denis and Griselda decided to it on. Aware that they alone would not get take these two people to the nearest clinic, very far, they decided to establish an entity, located about four kilometres away. They an Association, that could meet this challenge walked the trail with the two patients and paid and work in solidarity with the people of for the costs of the visits and of the necessary Tabassaye. And thus, in the spring of 2017, treatments to cure them. PROJECTE TABASSAYE was born. Projecte Tabassaye 5 Projecte Tabassaye Setting the scene Senegal Senegal is a republic in West Africa that had driven—and it still does—many Senegalese been a French colony until 1960. Currently, to leave their country, creating what is Senegal is one of the most politically known as “the diaspora”. However, it has stable states in Africa, with a consolidated been calculated that the remittances sent democratic system. by migrants back to Senegal amount to approximately 10% of the nation’s GDP. The nation has a land area of some 197,000 Although the Government fails to recognise km2 (about six times the area of Catalonia) the role of the Senegalese diaspora in the and a population of approximately 14,200,000 country’s development, it is evident that it has people (double that of Catalonia), of which an important one. 48% live in cities, principally within the Dakar metropolitan area. The Casamance area of Senegal, after more than twenty years of armed struggle, still The national unemployment rate is very high suffers from a significant lack of investment (more than 48%) and 54% of the population on the part of various governments. This lives below the poverty line. Although the has resulted in a region, despite having human development index has been important potential, that is one of Senegal’s constantly improving over several years (it most backward for its lack of infrastructure, has gone from 0.325 to 0.410 in the last 10 facilities and other services. Generally, there is years, with 1 being the index of countries such no electricity, or, if there is, it does not function as Norway and Canada), growth has been around the clock, there are no water or slow and is hardly noticed in rural areas. A sewage systems in place, hospital conditions situation where there is a lack of economic are disastrous, there are practically no paved opportunities for personal development has roads, etc. 6 Projecte Tabassaye Return of the fishermen in wooden boats on the beach in Casamance. Projecte Tabassaye 7 Projecte Tabassaye Setting the scene Senegal’s development plans Some years ago the Senegalese Government Meanwhile, in 2013 the Government published instituted a general development plan, known the so-called Acte III del la decentralisation, as the Plan Sénégal Emergant (PSE), that that has led to a new territorial reorganisation has as its objective the long-term (2030) of the Senegalese State. This reform is meant development of all of the country. It consists of to give more power to local collectives and a series of structural measures to improve the to create synergies between them and the business climate, strengthen human capital, state authorities. Another of the objectives of improve the financial state of the economy, Acte III is to promote the implementation of etc. The Government also set in motion an the PSE, especially with regard to the creation investment plan to prioritise sectors with high of territorial development policies in order to potential for job creation (agriculture, mining, make communities more competitive. infrastructure, housing, tourism, energy, In this sense, the development policies of logistics and industry). With these measures the Senegalese Government are currently in place much foreign investment has been centred on three basic pillars: a sustainable attracted, which has co-financed many large economy, human capital (therefore, it is projects (construction of highways and new important to invest in education and health) railway lines, mining operations, building of and democratic governance. new power plants, etc.). 8 Projecte Tabassaye Tabassaye Manding and Sintiang Maoudo, villages of the Dabo Commune The village of Tabassaye Manding is where our project began, and it is located in the Dabo Commune, in Senegal’s Kolda region. Currently there are approximately 572 inhabitants in the village, of which approximately 65% are less than 18 years old. The principal economic activity is based on agriculture (mainly concentrated during the months of the rainy season with the cultivation of rice, corn, cotton, millet and peanuts), small- scale livestock farming and small totally artisanal manufacturing industries.For some time now, small seasonal family gardens have also been cultivated under the management of the village women. In the village there are various water wells, of which only one is closed for obtaining potable water. There is no electricity nor a sewage system in place. The villagers move about on foot and the only means of transport are a few bicycles and some donkeys pulling carts. Commercial exchanges are mostly made in the town of Dabo through which the highway passes, about four kilometres distant from the village. There is a primary school attended by most of the village’s children between the ages of six and 12. When we first arrived in the village there was a worrying healthcare situation, with many neglected and chronic cases due to a lack of medical assistance, caused by scarce economic resources as well as entrenched cultural habits. Sintiang Maoudo is a small neighbouring community of 85 people very close to Tabassaye. The community’s children attend the school in Tabassaye and the villagers share the same manner of living and also their shortcomings. The community of Sintiang Maoudo joined and became part of Projecte Tabassaye in March of 2019. Projecte Tabassaye 9 Projecte Tabassaye The projecte’s values and objectives General description of the Projecte Our actions are directed at improving the However, there is a will and spirit amongst living conditions of the inhabitants of the 11 us that makes us believe in the opportunities villages of the Dabo Commune, starting with that are open before us, and we are prepared Tabassaye Manding and Sintiang Maodo, to explore them.Among the objectives based on the villagers’ own priorities.