UNICEF Salmaïtou — training 100+ young girls to become entrepreneurs

How it worked

I was working at Impact Hub Dakar at the time, but UNICEF hired me directly, as an independent consultant. Each mission ran the same way:

• I created the curriculum for my programme
• I gave the classes, in social entrepreneurship and digital tools
• I coached the girls to pitch in front of local authorities and UNICEF
• I sent my report to UNICEF

Then UNICEF called me back. Four more times.

I went, I gave the classes, I sent the report, and they called me again. Four times.

— Amath Mbaye

The bootcamp

Salmaïtou is a UNICEF programme in the Kolda region, in southern Senegal, for girls aged 10 to 18, in school and out of school. Each cohort goes through an intensive bootcamp, run with trainers from Senegal’s startup ecosystem. Amath Mbaye was one of them, hired directly by UNICEF as a consultant, for five missions.

In a few days, the girls go from idea to project:

• Digital tools: websites, mobile apps, games with Scratch, robotics and block coding, on tablets and connected-object kits they keep
• Social entrepreneurship: design thinking, business models, turning a problem around them into a project
• Creative content and multimedia
• Personal development and public speaking, up to the final pitch in front of local authorities and UNICEF

What the girls say

One girl explained that she learned how to turn an idea into a project. Another said the personal development sessions helped her get over her fear of speaking in public.

Kadidiatou Ba was in the first cohort, in 2019. She went on to study public policy at Université Cheikh Anta Diop, created a network of Kolda students in Dakar who campaign against FGM and for children’s rights, and came back to Kolda to encourage the girls of the third cohort.

At 16, Adama Woury Diallo had never been to school. At the bootcamp she learned to speak in public, and she wants to open her own restaurant. Awa Mballo, 17, regional “Miss Science” winner, wants to become an engineer.

Salmaïtou in numbers

From 2019 to 2022, UNICEF and its partners trained 250 girls across five cohorts, with support from UNICEF France and UNICEF Finland. I trained more than 100 of them.

Read more from UNICEF Senegal

• Girls in Senegal introduced to digital tools and social entrepreneurship (French)
• “Salmaitou helped us build our leadership and develop our potential” (French)
• When girls do better, we all do better
• Connecting young people to opportunities: promising models in southern Senegal