Senegambiagroup

Equigambia is a fair trade project

Contact: Violette Van Hoorebeke
The village gallery
Kololi
( (00220) 7798801
equigambia@gmail.com

The target of EQUIGAMBIA is young people who want to work on their future in their own country. Single mothers with a basic education as tailors, can't start their own atelier because they don't have sufficient capital. Equigambia gives them the chance to work in an atelier which has been equipped with good material and also tries to create a fixed consuming market.
Equigambia is working as a cooperative: all the substances, material and patterns are available for the tailors who are paid for each finished piece. At the end of the year 25% of the profit is divided among all the employees, the remaining 75% is invested again in the atelier.
For each employee of Equigambia there is a banc account, this means that later on every employee can buy its own material.

In this way unmarried mothers get a stable income (depending on the hours they have been working) and become more independent. Young men have less reasons to emigrate to Europe as they can own money in their own country.

Equigambia is more than a tailors atelier. We want to become a training centre for young women with a certitude for good quality. By informing young girls on subjects as family planning, AIDS, computer knowledge and illiteracy, we want to give young girls more chances and more strength to themselves. In order to realize all this we need funds. Once all material is there we want to be an independent company with the theme: 'trade not aid"

This means:
=Skill to bring young tailors on a higher level

=Insure a stable season free income

=Giving the Gambia a place on the international fair trade

=Developing the employees on several levels by training sessions