HIGHLIGHT: WARC: Closing Ceremony of the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE)
On Saturday, June 12th, 2021 at the West African Research Center (WARC), a ceremony was held to close the training session offered to twenty three young senegalese women entrepreneurs. Over 6 months, the recipients were trained in various entrepreneurial techniques and strategies thanks to a funding extended by the US Embassy in Dakar as part of the US State Department program titled African Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) and the collaboration of the West African Research Center (WARC) which offered its facilities and equipment to host the various sessions.
The ceremony was presided over by the Cultural Affairs Officer (CAO) of the US Embassy in Dakar, Mrs Rose Custis, and the Director of WARC, Professor Ousmane Séne. Both made speeches to open and close the event and insisted on young women’s need to further engage in income-generating activities and job-creating initiatives to consolidate gender empowerment and equity and contribute to the development efforts underway in their country.
The 23 recipients received their training certificates the same day and ten of them were offered a 10,000 dollar grant each to help sustain their budding businesses. Another group of recipients were offered 500 dollars each as a support to their business efforts. The funds were made available by the US Embassy as part of the African Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) initiative launched by the US State Department.