Probitas Foundation
Jesús i María, 6
08022 Barcelona, Spain
probitas@fundacionprobitas.org
+34 935 710 043
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Probitas offers a grant program for vulnerable people (Yakaar Training and Yakaar Entrepreneurship) in partnership with organizations that have proven experience in business training, support, and guidance. The project runs a first stage of business skills training in Barcelona for one academic year; the second stage involves setting up their business project in Senegal with an economic grant and guidance on creating and running a business in Senegal.
Yakaar—which means ‘hope’ in Wolof, the local language—has run for 3 years and 8 business projects have been launched in Senegal, helping these people to return safely and with dignity to their hometowns: Dakar, Touba, Saint Louis and Ziguinchor. These are small family-run businesses that employ up to 2 people in different sectors: agriculture (chicken farm), retail (bakery, fabric shop, fishmongers), distribution (wholesale fish business), services (kindergarten, fiber-optic installations), and food processing (natural smoothies).
With the Ha Ha Tay organization (Gandiol, Senegal) we also run the ‘School of Life’ program, the goal of which is to provide local young people with skills for entrepreneurship or accessing the job market, while also halting migration. The program has put together four modules that provide training on green building, creation of furniture, textiles, green agriculture, and video production, and over 103 young people are trained each year (>85% are women).
This entrepreneur managed to create Dolce Fruiti from scratch, a natural smoothie business in her hometown of Dakar. After first emigrating to Belgium and then to Spain, this 27-year-old Senegalese woman's determination to go back to her country and “be an independent woman in Senegal” is what led her to take part in the first run of the Yakaar program, with the goal of going home safely and with dignity.
This entrepreneur managed to set up the bakery and pastry shop Zikroulah in Touba, his hometown. After completing his training in Barcelona, where he did an internship at a bakery to learn how to run a bakery, and after 18 months of untiring work and countless administrative issues, he brought his dream to life in July 2022.
Based on his experience as a fisherman in Dakar before emigrating to Spain, this entrepreneur made use of his knowledge of the sector to create his business, Lebou Gui, a local fishmonger in the Yoff neighborhood in Dakar. Issa took part in the third run of the Yakaar program and opened his business in March 2023 with a two-person team. His challenge now is to expand his sales to hotels and restaurants.
