This International Women’s Day, to celebrate Women in Energy, we’ve spoken to some of the fantastic and talented women who work across our portfolio of wind farms, as well as female community members benefiting from our community investment efforts, to understand more about their lives.
At our Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye (PETN) project in Senegal, we spoke with Ndeye Sarr, a plot owner at Taiba N’Diaye’s Irrigated garden project and Oumou Kalsoum Ndiaye, an intern at PETN. Here, they tell their personal stories of their work and involvement with PETN, as well as their hopes for the future.
Ndeye Sarr Oumou Kalsoum Ndiaye
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Ms. Ndeye Sarr, plot owner at Taiba N’Diaye’s pilot garden
My name is Ndeye Sarr from the village of Taiba Mbaye. With PETN having acquired some of our land for the construction of the windfarm our household has benefited from the livelihood restoration measures that PETN have put in place to make up for this. It means I now take care of the operation of a 625 m2 plot in the market irrigated garden scheme set up to support landowners impacted by the project.
I take care of all the farming operations myself from the nurseries to the harvest. I’m in the second production cycle. The first cycle has been very beneficial for our household. The revenue generated helped to meet the family’s expenses during these difficult times of COVID 19.
I would like to invite all the women of the commune to take an interest in market gardening, which is an important source of income and will be able to participate in our empowerment. I invite the authorities of the commune and our husbands to cede land to women because we do not have access to the land properly.
We thank PETN for this great initiative. The market gardening perimeter has lived up to our expectations and the success of the pilot scheme means it can now be expanded to benefit more community members in particular women.
Oumou Kalsoum Ndiaye, intern at PETN
My name is Oumou Kalsome Ndiaye. I have been an intern at Parc Eolien Taiba N’Diaye (PETN) since 1st September 2020.
I did my elementary, middle and high school studies here in Taiba Ndiaye.
After obtaining my bachelor’s degree, I went to the Cheikh Anta DIOP University in Dakar for a period of 2 years to study in the Spanish language department. Then I continued my studies at the ESEA (Higher School of Applied Economics) in the Department of Community Development and Training (DECOF) for training in Educational Ombudsman and Animation Inspector for a period of 5 years (2015 -2020).
I applied to PETN for an internship to familiarize myself with the professional environment and improve my skills in community development.
Currently I work with the ESG team. Part of my role is to work in implementing the evaluation monitoring mechanism. In practical terms, I participate in the development of data collection tools, collect data in the field and help inform the monitoring indicators.
At the end of the internship, I hope that I will have accumulated enough knowledge to find a job in the field of Monitoring and Evaluation.
I would like to thank the entire PETN team and in particular the ESG department for their support. I hope that this internship programme will continue as many young people in the commune will benefit from it, particularly girls.