Jean Christophe Diatta

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Jean Christophe Diatta by Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance Fund in Senegal. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 10 - 16 months, Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance Fund will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

“We thank SEM and SEM’s loan officer, who is a great person. Thanks to SEM, we’ve been able to purchase several computers that we needed for our activities with the children. I believe that SEM is the only organization that has understood our goals and we are very grateful for their help.”

French :

« Nous remercions le SEM et son agent de micro crédit qui est un homme exemplaire.

Nous avons grâce a SEM pus acheter des ordinateurs pour le fonctionnement de nos activités avec les jeunes. Je croix que SEM est la seule structure qui a compris notre objectif et nous saluons beaucoup leurs geste. »

« Everything is going well at the moment. We now expect to take out another loan to augment our hosting capacity, because our classroom is narrow and the requests for enrollment continue to arrive. We have also enrolled several orphans [without charge], who need this education for their future.”

« Pour le momment tout va bien ; en attendant d’avoir un autre prêt pour augmenter notre capacité d’accueil car notre salle est éttroite et les demandes continues a nous parvenir.

Nous avont inscrir plusieurs orphelins qui ont besoin de cette formation pour leurs avenir. »

Note: The SEM staff has translated this message into French and English, staying as close to the speaker's original words as possible.

On Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting Jean Christophe Diatta who is the general secretary of the computer school in Parcelles Assaines. Jean Christophe Diatta spoke enthusiastically with me about the current programs running at the school. He was pleased to report that that the school was running at full capacity, with three classes seven days a week. Most classes are for children, with a section for the 3 to 6 year olds (the “rabbits”), the 7 to 8 year olds (the “foxes”), the 9 to 10 years olds (the “doves”) and the 11 to 13 year olds (the “dolphins”). The cost is approximately $6US for a weekly class that runs for four weeks. They currently own 5 computers and admit 10 students in each class. There are about 150 students in attendance at this point.

One thing that Jean Christophe Diatta was most proud of was his sponsorship program for underprivileged children. He reserves 35 spaces for poor children, for whom he actively seeks a sponsor that is willing to pay the fees for the child. Jean Christophe Diatta sponsors a child, as does SEM’s field officer, Doudou Mbodj.

A second program that Jean Christophe Diatta discuss with me was the program for women without no formal education. He stated that there were women in the neigborhood who did what is typically women’s work (selling products in the market) who did not have an education or any knowledge of computers. He said that these women were interested in gaining new skills. He believed that having a program specifically for these women was important. Creating a program specifically for these women has resulted in regular, enthusiastic attendance. He stated that this program has been running successfully and feels proud to be providing an environment for these women to develop themselves.

I had the pleasure of watching a class in action (please see the attached photos). The teenagers sat two to a computer. They seemed energetic and pleased to be attending class. The ten computers were running smoothly and the environment was very conducive to learning.

I was very impressed with the facilities, the students and Jean Christophe Diatta. In particular, Jean Christophe Diatta’s enthusiasm for his work was readily apparent, and it was my impression that the school was running in a very efficient and effective manner, largely as a result of Jean Christophe Diatta passion and dedication. I left with a feeling of having witnessed a program with an obvious and meaningful social impact.

Dominique Sagna

je pense que nous pouvons pas vous dire plus que vous avez vu sur place.

Les enfants ont apris l'outil informetique chose qui n'était pas évident au début mais SEM est venu au bon moment pour appuyer notre initiative.