Dickel founded AFPHY in 2017, with the aim of combatting gender-based violence and discrimination in Mauritania, particularly in rural areas, through the creation of employment opportunities for the economic empowerment of women who did not have access to education. Only 4% women are enrolled in tertiary education in Mauritania while women comprise 33.6% of the Mauritanian labour force. As a survivor of sexual assault and FGM, Dickel is passionate about helping girls and women in her community and country.
Dickel attended the One Young World Summit in London, 2019, as a Delegate Speaker, where she shared her story for the first time in front of over 2,000 people. Dickel’s involvement with One Young World has continued after the Summit. AFPHY received $20,000 as part of One Young World’s COVID Young Leaders Fund for their COVInitiative programme through which they trained 99 victims of sexual violence to produce soap and 5,000 face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching 10,000 Mauritanians.
AFPHY’s broad focus has allowed it to create a range of programmes in Mauritanian communities, impacting over 12,000 people, from providing school supplies at low cost to over 300 students in a local high school, training 102 women in agriculture, providing financial education, materials, and funds to help launch a business, and helping start a local cooperative bank for 235 women. In 2023, AFPHY will open the doors of its open space office, which is designed to support new non-governmental organisations in Mauritania by helping them operate without needing to finance their own offices.
“One Young World changed my life. It gave me the courage and the opportunity to tell my story for the very first time in front of more than 2,000 people. Meeting all those people having smart ideas, experiences, exchanging with them really changed my perspective and the way that I see things.”