Keur Simbara, Senegal

Doussou Konaté is a 55-year-old mother of six children and a proud member of the Bambara ethnic group.  She has never been to formal school.   Her husband is a farmer in the village of Keur Simbara.  Before Doussou was introduced to the Tostan non-formal education program, she too farmed millet and peanuts to earn a small income for her family.

Doussou was raised speaking only Bambara, a linguistic minority within Senegal, but after completing the Tostan Community Empowerment Program (CEP), she gained a functional literacy in Wolof, the lingua franca throughout much of Senegal.  Doussou became a Tostan facilitator in 1991 and was assigned to the village of Keur Lamane to lead the CEP in that community.  During her time as a facilitator, she frequently returned to her village to help raise awareness of the dangers of female genital cutting (FGC) and to encourage the community to abandon the practice.

Along with the many human rights initiatives that she has led in her own community, Doussou has served as a member of the village’s outreach team, which travels to neighboring communities to educate people about the dangers of FGC and child/forced marriage .  She has also served as the treasurer of the village’s health fund from her position on Keur Simbara’s Community Management Committee (CMC).  Somehow, Doussou still finds time to operate and grow her peanut business as well.

Doussou’s village assembly chose her as the representative from their community for the Barefoot College solar engineering training in India .  And though rural West African men are often stereotyped as being conservative, her husband and other men in the community are fully in favor of Doussou's new role—they say that they support her efforts because she is working for the good of the whole community. 

Doussou’s ambitions are part of a broader vision of development that she has for her community.  Having completed the six-month training program in Solar Power Engineering at the Barefoot College, Doussou is now able to operate solar panels and will eventually be able to provide light for Keur Simbara’s households.   She hopes also to adapt her skills to support other efforts that would increase the possibilities for small, female-owned businesses in the village.