In today’s impact story, let us introduce you to Ndella N’diaye. When we meet her in N’diob (Senegal), she seems tired. As the conversation progresses, we learn why.
Ndella runs a store in N’diob where she sells various necessities and prepares breakfast for the villagers every day. The store is not owned by her alone, but is run collectively by a women’s association of which she is a board member.
"We women here are very proud of our store and what we have built up for ourselves by maintaining the store. The store was initially funded by World Vision, an evangelical organization involved in various countries in the Global South. But after we were able to finance the store ourselves, it is now ours. That makes us very happy."
Every three months, it’s the turn of a woman from the organization to manage all the store’s affairs. This includes not only purchasing goods and planning work, but also bookkeeping.
The store’s profits are divided into three parts: The first part is invested in more goods for the store. The women want to make sure that they really offer the goods for which demand is high in N’diob. The second part is saved in the bank, because unforeseen events can always occur, for which provision should thus be made, and the third part is intended for the woman who runs the store during these three months.
"This is how we run the store. Its main purpose is to help the people of N'diob when they are in need. We want to do our part to support our community. If someone sometimes can't afford to pay, it's not a problem, they can bring us the money for the goods they bought later. We rely on mutual trust. This has worked very well for a long time."
But the women have a problem that has plagued them for years: lack of electricity. Ndella tells us that it is quite exhausting for her to get up very early every morning to prepare meals until the afternoon. She is already a bit older, which is why the work stresses her. She hopes that as soon as there is electricity in N’diob, she will be able to do other activities that are less strenuous for her. But electricity is also essential for the store itself:
"Currently, we always have to close early when it gets dark. If we had light in the evening as well, we could work longer and wouldn't have to worry about our security, because light deters unsavory people such as thieves. We would definitely feel a lot safer with electricity, and we wouldn't have to work using flashlights for illumination in the evenings either, which is a bit inconvenient.”
Another benefit that electricity could bring to Ndella and the other women would be that they could expand into other businesses and sell more products. For example, if they had electricity, they would like to invest in a refrigerator so they can sell cold drinks and even ice.
To what extent Ndella’s store has changed because of Africa GreenTec’s sustainable electricity, you will hopefully find out soon in a follow up blog article!
Project implementation of the ImpactSite in Ndiob, Senegal was financed with the help of the following partners:
This project is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as part of the Renewable Energy Solutions Programme of the German Energy Solutions Initiative.
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