Frances Schervier Women’s Training Center (Dakar)
The Center offers professional training appropriate for the times and serves young women who either have not had the opportunity to receive a formal education or who have finished high school and come to the Center for additional training in order to help them enter the work force in the local crafts industry. Local craft products are very sought after in foreign countries and allow many families to have a source of income.
Other courses offered include socio-cultural and
spiritual integration, family economics, hygiene and prevention of
transmittable diseases, child welfare, and literacy classes.
The Center is attended by 108 young women belonging to different ethnic
groups and different religions. The curriculum is a four-year program,
which includes instruction on the following:
- Tailoring of children’s wear
- Embroidery and Production of table cloths, sheets, table runners
- Tailoring of adolescent boys and girls wear
- Introduction to and practice of textile dyeing
- Theory and practicum of skirts and foundations of cutting
- Theory and practicum for dresses and shirts production
- Production of goods using western patterns
- Theory and practicum of Senegalese style men’s and women’s wear
- Batik style dyeing of tablecloths, dresses and shirts.
In addition, students benefit from Integrative
life-skills classes, which include courses on the French language, home
economics, health, hygiene and women’s development.
Needs: Funding to support student fees, supplies and materials, and
teachers salaries is an ongoing need!
