Today we ventured out to Ecole Premiere Saint Antoine de Padoue in Kongheul, Kaolack. The school is run by Italian nuns and all the younger kids looked so cute in their blue school uniforms.

It was a 3 hour journey for us in what can only be described as heavan for 4 wheel drive fanatics! The school is a participator in the 10,000 Girls project and we were there to meet the older girls in the enterprise programme. Their task is to run profitable enterprises that raise money for themselves but also fund places for educating young girls.This was the first Dragons Den style meeting of the trip and there were 12 girls working on 2 projects.

One project was to weave and sell special Senegalese fabrics that are highly sought after by Senegalese living in other parts of the world and who currently have to travel to Senegal to buy them. This project was deemed very interesting by the Dragons but there was not enough depth of understanding in its current form. The girls were sent away with a positive message and a request to do more detailed research. We expect that they will be ready in 6 months to a year with a much specific plan. They were very grateful with the learning derived through going through the process.

The other project the Dragons loved. The restaurant group currently have a restaurant business in the town which is making good money but is hindered by lack of basic equipment. Their premises are rented on a 1 month notice period and they are reluctant to invest in that location.

The girls really wanted better premises and had a shopping list of the equipment they would need down to a good level of detail. They also had a good grasp of the local market and they were ideally located as a pitstop for passing trade. A profitable area where the Dragons saw a lot of potential was supplying the local NGOs with lunches. They are already doing 25 lunches per month with scare facilities and this could be expanded significantly.

All the girls said they enjoyed the process of having to present their ideas and give detailed justifications. With the help of their English teacher Jean-Pierre, we agreed to draw up a simple business plan for the restaurant business that he could translate into Wolof to serve as an example for future Dakar Dragons project ideas.

After a tiring day the Dragons are now back in their hotel and getting ready for a meal together to review the day and plan for tomorrow.