The Daughters of Charity alongside young women in Mauritania

The Daughters of Charity have been present in Mauritania, a Muslim country, since 1984. In a district of the capital Nouakchott, they run the Dar el Barka Centre, which includes a preschool and a number of activities for the promotion and training of women.

Contact with the local population gives the sisters a good understanding of the reality of the neighbourhood as experienced by the young people.

‘Families experience distress, suffering and parental conflict. Women are most often the victims; they are in a highly vulnerable situation, with no prospects for the future...’. Sr Maria

Very quickly, the sisters became concerned about supporting the young girls in this neighbourhood. They offer sewing workshops, hairdressing courses, fabric dyeing, computer courses, tutoring and language courses to help them master Arabic and French.

Creating a new ... and delicious training course

"Our concern is for the future of young girls who don't go to school, and we'd like to train them to ensure they have a better future. We would now like to create a real training course in pastry-making with them, to develop the limited knowledge of pastry-making that they have learnt at home." Sr Maria

This apprenticeship project will enable them to:

- acquire the technical and manual skills of pastry-making, using the appropriate tools

- master the use of different ingredients

- help and encourage them to make their own original biscuits and cakes

- develop a small business to sell their products and achieve a degree of economic independence.

The apprenticeship lasts 2 years, 4 days a week from 9am to 12pm, and ends with an assessment. 

In the 1st year, the apprentice pastry chefs will work on the theoretical aspects of the trade: hygiene standards, proportions, ingredients, baking times and methods of preserving biscuits and cakes. They will also be looking at consumer expectations, so that they can adapt their production to the needs of the population.

In the 2nd year, the girls will apply what they have learnt in practical terms, particularly in terms of creating original, individual recipes and managing pastry-making activities as a group, in order to prepare an outside income-generating activity...

The beneficiaries
This training programme is offered to 15 young girls aged 16-17-18 with very little education, who are determined to get involved and actively commit to this pastry-making training project, together with their families.

"Thank you for giving these young girls the chance to learn and grow in self-esteem..." Sr Maria

With them, thanks to you!