Day 5- SOS Dialogue Visit and Bandia Wildlife Preserve

Our team from Wisconsin pictured with the students of SOS Dialogue.

On the 5th day of our visit, our mission team visited Thies, (prounounced Chez) the second largest city in Senegal.  It it is the home to SOS Dialogue,  a skill center for women.

We were greeted by Martha Gomis, who has been running SOS for over 20 years.  SOS Dialogue was supported as a mission project by the UMW (United Methodist Women) from 1997-2017.

Yvonne Woodrow from First Church Neenah listens on our SOS Dialogue Visit.

Martha gave us a tour of the classroom spaces and introduced us to her students. Fifteen are enrolled in the two-year sewing program, which also teaches French, English, and Mathematics.  A three-year program is also offered in restaurant training, which enrolls 20 students.  Gomis told us both programs are designed to help craft a future for these young women.

"In the restaurant program the girls learn cooking, nutrition, and embroidery. They learn finances, their rights, and their duties.  Everything they need to run a business.  Many of my students have opened their own sewing shop or business, or gone back to school.  But we want to make sure they take something with them they can use.  We have a malnutrition issue in our country; we also want to change the way they eat at home."

Martha address the students during our visit.

The rest of our afternoon was touring a Wildlife reserve in Bandia.  We saw many animals indigenous to Senegal, but many that were brought from South Africa.  We were given a guided tour through the reserve but were remarkably close to the animals.  God's creatures were right there among us!

Pastor Ben Morris from Emmanuel Church has a giraffe right over his shoulder!

This monkey near the restaurant found a treat to snack on!

Tomorrow will include a visit to Goree island and a MicroCredit Center. Thank you for following our adventures!