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Chef Academy Senegal

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What Are We About?

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Chef Academy Senegal is a 501c3 Nonprofit Organization with a mission to educate at-risk young women in Dakar Senegal. Our organization has four main goals:

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1) Build a school with the primary purpose of providing a free culinary arts certification program for vulnerable at-risk young Senegalese women,

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2) Operate a fully sustainable, credible, and effective culinary arts learning institution,

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3) Provide internships and job placements for each Chef Academy Senegal student, and 

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4) Help lift up Dakar communities through partnership and community service opportunities. 

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Chef Academy Senegal is doing more than building a school in Dakar, our goal is to uplift communities within Dakar, one student at a time. Our school will be a pillar of the community and a shining example of how investing resources in young women helps to end generational poverty cycles. We welcome you to be a partner in our mission to positively change lives! 

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Why is Chef Academy Needed? 

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At the present moment in Dakar Senegal, there is a growing crisis. Senegal has a growing population of youth under the age of 18, representing 42% of the country's population.  Senegalese youth have very few options for education and employment. It is estimated that 49% of Senegal's total population is crowded into the urban cites, and almost 8 million people live in the Capital City of Dakar alone. All throughout the streets of Dakar, there are countless youth wandering the streets looking for work with no hope in sight. These youth are essentially left behind by society. One of the most vulnerable groups of Senegalese youth left behind are young women ages 15-24. 

Young women in Senegal are at great risk of being exploited. Eight dangers facing young Senegalese women are 1) being forced into early marriage, 2) being forced into underpaid domestic work contracts, 3) being the victims of domestic violence, 4) being at risk of teenage pregnancy, 5) being at risk of human trafficking, 6) being at risk of prostitution, 7) being at risk of illiteracy or undereducation from not attending school, and 8) risk of involvement in illegal drug use. Another great danger facing young Senegalese women is the risk of dying in the ocean due to European migration by boat. As many as 400 Senegalese youth died from drowning in the ocean in 2020 while making the difficult choice to leave their families in search for educational and employment opportunities in Europe.  These youth, often times living in squalor, are left to irrational and unsafe choices  because there are no other opportunities to get themselves and their families out of abject poverty.

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Young Senegalese women are at an even greater risk than young Senegalese men, and unfortunately, there are no real solutions offered to assist. With the lack of educational infrastructure in Dakar, young women often do not complete their education. The schools that are available are often times too expensive, and families would rather young women get married or find work outside the home to help support the family.  There have been several for profit schools open in Dakar in recent years but they often provide low quality instruction and teach skills that are not practical and that do not prepare the students to compete for jobs available. Currently, about 6% of Senegalese young women attend skill and trade based programs that are teaching skills that do not match the available workforce. 

Chef Academy Senegal will provide a tuition-free technical training based school, solely focused on culinary arts and the skills needed to secure employment in the food service industry. Unlike many of the "skill and trade" programs offered by for profit entities in Dakar, Chef Academy Senegal will provide courses that teach valuable skills well aligned with the growing food service jobs available in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries. 

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My name is Chef David Daouda Diop, and I am an executive chef and small business owner in Colorado. I was born in Senegal and migrated to the United States in 2011. I have experienced what a life of poverty in Dakar Senegal feels and looks like. I know first hand that no matter how much a person wishes to get a job, be successful, attend school, and have a better life this is just a dream without access and opportunity. My journey started out as one of those Senegalese youth who had no choice but to make the dangerous trip to Europe to escape a life of poverty. Traveling countless miles through the Sahara dessert and living as a refugee in Europe, I experienced many dangerous situations along my journey. What is so memorable of that journey was seeing young African women who were being exploited and abused while making the same journey. Fortunately for me, I was blessed with the opportunity to migrate to the US and become a US citizen. I attended Emily Griffith culinary arts school in Colorado at a very low cost thanks to many scholarships and grants made available to me. The skills that I learned in that culinary arts program and other culinary arts courses that I completed in Colorado helped me to secure many good paying jobs in the food service industry. These jobs helped to  give me the confidence and prepare me to start my own business. Back in 2015, I opened Colorado's only gourmet West African Food Truck. Now, five years later, the Pikine Grill Food truck is a successful, well respected, and thriving business. This was a dream come true and life changing opportunity. My success has helped me to get my family out of poverty in Senegal and has positively contributed to my family here in the US as well. My experience in getting an education and starting a business has been my inspiration for creating Chef Academy Senegal. I was once one of the youth that was left behind in Senegal by the traditional education system, and had no choice but to leave my country for opportunities for work and to help get myself and my family out of generational poverty. My goal is provide a school for other youth still left behind in Senegal. Each time I visit my home city of Dakar, it really hurts me so deeply to see so many young people hopeless and lost. I am even more sad for the young women of Senegal because I know that they have even fewer options and they are more at risk. In my own family, I have seen how my own mother, sisters, and cousins have suffered and struggled. I have also seen how the women in my family have helped us eat everyday and have sacrificed everything to keep us safe and alive. Women in Senegal do everything for their families and share whatever they get with their families and their communities. Women make families and communities better, and that is why the focus of Chef Academy Senegal will be to educate and uplift at-risk young women. I want Chef Academy to be an example for what great things are possible if people invest in young women. I want others to be inspired to create similar programs and  work opportunities for young women so that collective efforts can bring about real positive change!

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Why a Culinary School?

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In spite of widespread poverty, Senegal had an estimated $24.13 billion dollar economy in 2018. Of all French-speaking African countries, Senegal has had the most development only after the Ivory Coast. Senegal is also a very stable country and has had no major conflicts or political unrest since gaining its independence in 1960. Recently, there have been discoveries in the oil industry in Senegal, and the country is expected to have more economic development because of this discovery. Investment into Senegal is on the rise, and the country has been featured as a desirable travel destination in many publications and travel channels. With travel and tourism up in Senegal, people have frequently visited hotels and local restaurants. With COVID-19, there has been an increased concern for food safety and handling practices in Senegal. This area is where Chef Academy Senegal will best prepare its students to thrive in the growing travel and tourism, food service, and hospitality industries. Chef Academy Senegal students will be prepared to secure jobs and take full advantage of opportunities available. 

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What's At Stake - The Impact:

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  • Assessible Education : The inaugural class of young women students will attend an intensive 10 month culinary arts certificate program, focusing on industry standard culinary skills, to include food preparation and knife skills; equipment safety; food safety techniques; food storage and waste techniques; sustainability; event planning; menu planning; food service operations; point of service skills; and basic agricultural and farming techniques. 

  • Job Placement: The service sector is the largest contributor to Senegal's GDP. Chef Academy Senegal will place each student in an approved internship;  provide resume building and interview skill classes, and help to place each student in a job with food service industry partner upon successful completion of the program. 

  • Sustainability:  Senegal's food systems are vulnerable. Rapidly changing climate and environmental factors due to global warming has negatively impacted Senegal's most popular, most affordable, and most reliable food resource, fish and seafood. Chef Academy Senegal will teach sustainable agricultural farming courses as part of the curriculum with this issue in mind. Students will learn about ways to grow poultry and livestock, plant and harvest produce, preserve food using canning and dehydration techniques, and learn about composting and other innovative food waste techniques. Students will also be taught about the importance of growing and harvesting native foods that are better for the environment.  Chef Academy Senegal also has plans for a community garden in which students and members of the community can together plant, cultivate, grow, and harvest produce that will be used in the school and shared with the community. 

  • Community Engagement: Chef Academy Senegal will provide opportunities for students to involve in social, cultural, and environmental issues facing their communities, and be active partners in offering ideas for the school to give back and support the surrounding communities. Chef Academy also plans on preparing food at the school to feed children at surrounding local elementary schools on a rotating basis.

 

What are we fundraising for?

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Chef Academy wants to be completely transparent about all donations received on behalf of our organization. As a 501c3 nonprofit organization, every single dollar donated to us matters, is useful, is valuable, and is so appreciated.  Fully funded, we have estimated the full cost of building and operating Chef Academy Senegal for the first year to be $340,000. We plan to use Indegogo platform to raise the first $40,000. Here are our plans for the $40,000:

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  • The Land - It may just be a piece of dirt, but it's the school's home and foundation, and very necessary first step to making Chef Academy a reality that changes lives of young women in Senegal.

  • The Paperwork - In Senegal, purchasing of land requires filing a lot of paperwork to ensure the legality and security of the land purchase investment.

If we exceed our fundraising goal, we will use the additional funds raised towards building the school and related expenses.

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Project Risks?

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Chef Academy Senegal is a nonprofit organization with a lofty goal of building a school to change lives. Like many other nonprofits with similar missions, there is always a risk. Two specific risks we have identified are 1) community skepticism about Chef Academy Senegal and our school because so many other predatory "schools" have taken money from struggling families and not delivered on promises to educate the youth, and 2) the negative impact COVID-19 has had on Senegal's travel and tourism industry. Chef Academy's leadership team and Board of Directors has done a tremendous job thinking about these potential risks and have put in work to help mitigate these risks. Here is why we feel strongly that Chef Academy Senegal will succeed and thrive in spite of risks:

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  • Community Buy-In: Chef David and Board of Directors Members have invested time and resources to write letters and make several visits to Senegal to hold meetings and engage in discussion with government and non-government representatives. They have reached out to and met with representatives from USAID, Plan International, the US Peace Corps, Mayors of Pikine Ouest, Yoff, and Guediawaye, as well as a government official in Thies. Chef David held an informative Q&A session with several members of the Pikine community in Dakar to discuss the plans for Chef Academy Senegal and listen to and address any concerns. Chef David promoted Chef Academy Senegal on several noteworthy media outlets in Dakar to discuss the plans for the school and to spread the word about the goals of Chef Academy Senegal. There has been tremendous excitement and support for the school, including two municipalities offering support for the project.

  • Food Safety: Chef Academy Senegal will succeed in spite of the negative impacts of COVID-19 for one simple reason, high food safety standards. Currently, there are no credible culinary programs offered in Senegal with a focus on food safety and handling. Before COVID-19, food borne illnesses from unsanitary conditions and mishandling and storage of food was a widespread issue in Senegal. Many Senegalese have died because of food borne illnesses. COVID-19 has made the situation even more critical, and Chef Academy Senegal will ensure our students learn proper food safety and handling techniques, proper food preparation, and proper food storage to help eliminate the risk of food borne illnesses and the spread of communicable diseases. This will make Chef Academy Senegal's students valuable to any hotel kitchen or restaurant. 

 

Other Ways You Can Help

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We understand that some may want to, but are unable to financial contribute to this campaign. Her are other ways you can help us achieve our goal and get the land purchased for Chef Academy Senegal:

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  • Please follow us on Facebook, and give us a shout out and share our campaign on all your social media pages. 

  • For family and friends that are not on social media, please send a hyperlink to our campaign via text or email to help us spread the word.

Thank you so much! We look forward to going on this journey with you! 

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