A review of a year’s work on setting up the Kiné Diop restaurant and patisserie

In 2021, following the second run of the training course “Women’s Empowerment through Free Software Technologies” with the team at the Kiné Diop Centre, we decided to embark on a project we had been considering for several months: ensuring the financial sustainability of the Kiné Diop Centre.

One of the Centre’s objectives is economic independence, that is to say, to be able to generate the financial resources that will ensure the long-term viability of the training centre whilst simultaneously implementing another of its objectives: to improve the socio-economic situation of women in Dalifort. To this end, we are planning to set up an Economic Interest Group (GIE) capable of creating jobs and helping other women to create them, whilst ensuring the long-term viability of the training centre.

These are ambitious goals; we have no financial support apart from the occasional donation, but we are determined and committed to seeing through the mission we have set ourselves.

After a year’s work, we can say that the original team of three women started out in a borrowed kitchen, baking cakes and going door to door.

After several months of work, we had the opportunity to rent a well-located premises; we painted it, and managed to buy some basic equipment thanks to an online fundraising campaign; we borrowed the rest from home and the training centre, and set to work.

During this second phase, there were between six and eight people working full-time; we expanded our range of pastries to include breakfast in the morning, lunch at midday, and pastries and dinner in the evening.

A 12-hour opening day involves a great deal of internal and external organisation, due to everyone’s respective individual responsibilities, but little by little, we found a suitable rhythm. Teamwork was strengthened, tasks were divided up, and regular meetings are held where decisions are made together and all the steps taken are reported with complete transparency.

In the summer of 2022, the Centre Kiné Diop project was invited by Women in Exile to the international conference “From breaking borders to building bridges” in Berlin to share this experience; this provided an opportunity to start an international network and meet women leading equally inspiring initiatives in other parts of the world.

In October 2022, La télé citoyenne (LTC) invited the Centre Kiné Diop to share its experience as part of its Njambaar programme.

Although the project has not yet reached a stable footing, we are moving forward step by step, without pause, until we achieve our goal.

We would like to thank Antoinette Mendy, Ibrahima Ly and Abdoulaye Diagne for their support during this first year of the Kine Diop restaurant and patisserie.