Animatrice

Much has been done in recent years to teach occupational skills to animatrices that will be useful to girls and mothers in rural areas.

Included activities such as collective farming, mills and donkey carts; literacy, village maternities, child care, health education, weaving, constructing latrines and water filters, sewing, civics, training of animatrices and TBAs plus other activities.

The specific functions of each animatrice are delineated in the projects in the report. The regional animatrice, charged with overseeing the activities of the village and family animatrices, would be responsible to a team of project supervisors. This team, composed of researchers, engineers, development assistance managers, educational planners, and a representative from the funding agency, would plan, follow-up, and evaluate the project components in cooperation with the regional animatrice.

The Equal Access Project inaugurated the concept of selecting and training village women as paraprofessionals (animatrices and midwives) as a means for basing skills in the community, transmitting information, and organizing activities at the local level.

In the second case, continuing training and "sensibilisation" by PLAN instructors and animatrices is indispensable; otherwise the formation of committees and the selection of village paraprofessionals would be meaningless.

My job description required that I ‘co-ordinate the women’s work in the centres’ and ‘supervise the animatrices working there’.

In the meantime an assistant animatrice started that part of the women's component which emphazised^([sic]) their family roles.

While the situation of women in Senegal is certainly quite different a similar approach has been fruitful, namely, supporting an evaluation of existing projects for women by a local team (Savané, 1982) and then assisting some women on a pilot basis to improve their productivity and strengthen their organisational base, with the assistance of animatrices provided by the Government.