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My name is Touty and I come from Senegal. I've been in the fashion business for over 10 years now. At first all I did was sell clothes in my shop, but then I started to design fashion myself. In 2019 I decided to position myself better in the market, and I was helped to do that by "Successful in Senegal". This is a project run by the BMZ – the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. They helped me to launch my own fashion label "Touty". I now employ 20 people in my tailoring business. "Successful in Senegal" also helped me to finance and organise pop-up stores and to showcase my goods in local boutiques. I have even formed a joint cooperative together with "Successful in Senegal". It's called Atelier221. I want to use it to bring together fashion designers and other creative people. Its motto is "Made in Senegal".
Tailoring combats the crisis
Tailoring combats the crisis
Then along came the COVID-19 pandemic – I was really worried that I'd have to close my tailoring business straight away. But "Successful in Senegal" approached me with a great idea, and now my team and I are producing face coverings for local people. We did of course initially receive some training in how to make masks that are safe and high quality, but now we've produced over 11,500 of them! "Successful in Senegal" buys them from us, and distributes them to its partner organisations and to particularly disadvantaged groups.
I'm very proud of what my company has achieved, and I'm hopeful that I can continue to employ lots of people. I want to support my country by creating new job opportunities. Young people in particular are close to my heart. That's why I hope I can train lots of young people to become tailors and create jobs for them.
As of: 11/2020
The opportunities for advice and assistance described here are offered as part of “Returning to New Opportunities”.
