Story of the Director of the NGO Kanya Donse Fanyi (KDF)
Founder and Director of KDF, Mrs. Diallo Abiba, is a native of Niger and a graduate of the National School of Administration in Niamey, where she began her career as an assistant secretary at the Iranian embassy. Married to a Guinean, Mrs. Diallo followed her husband to settle in Kindia, in 1988. Very early on she noticed the loss of fruit in the Kindia region, which deeply affected her. With her knowledge in traditional drying and processing techniques, she decided to confront this agricultural phenomenon.
In that same year she met a French NGO-Loire Atlantique, based in Kindia, as part of a twinning arrangement between the city of Nantes and Kindia. The NGO’s objective was to promote women’s entrepreneurship, through incubators for women’s businesses processing local products. After several training sessions within the framework of this twinning, an observation of post-harvest loss of fruit and vegetables in Kindia, and considering her personal vision, Mrs. Diallo decided to pursue her mission of fighting food insecurity and maternal and child malnutrition, and of promoting women’s empowerment through food processing and conservation. By 1992 she had turned this vision and purpose into a reality, with the creation of the NGO Kanya Donsé Fanyi, or KDF.
In the greater scope of her work, Mrs. Diallo Abiba serves as a liaison between all actors in food processing, as well as a facilitator for the empowerment of women in the Kindia region and beyond. She has worked as an honorary consul of Niger in Guinea. She works with the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as with actors working in the mango and cashew export sector in Guinea, as part of the implementation of the reverse flow partnership project between Guinea (beneficiary) and Tunisia (provider). With her unique position within this framework, she aims to forge a broader network with all these actors involved in the processing, conservation, and marketing of agricultural products, particularly with regard to grouped exports of processed products.
Furthermore, Mrs. Diallo provides training for thousands of women in Guinea, and in the sub-region, and has facilitated and participated in numerous workshops, exhibitions, and trainings in the field of agri-food processing, marketing of agricultural products, and production of baby food around the world. Her local community work includes organizing women’s groups to educate and empower them through income-generating activities, such as the production of baby food called “maman bouillie”. She is also the inventor, designer, and producer of infant flour named BARAKA, made from locally sourced products.
For Mrs. Diallo, KDF is a story of family, friends, and collaborators, who contribute to, and believe in, our vision, and who share it, especially young people, women, future generations, and the entire ‘diaspora.’ It is an invitation to promote food security and the conservation of agricultural products, through the support of the local and greater community. At its core, KDF is an activity of traceable love, touching every person involved.