Gender Equality Senegal Project #17555

Clean Water for 1,500 People in Rural Senegal

by Center for Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technology for the Environment (CREATE!)

Project Report | Sep 14, 2017
Abundant Water in Rural Senegal

By Kaitlyn Grigsby-Hall | CREATE! Grants Manager and Project Leader

Ndeye of Fass Kane says "I now have a good life"

The last two months have been very busy! With your support, CREATE! is expanding our partnerships to two new communities in Senegal’s Louga Region. By providing access to abundant, affordable water and training from CREATE! field technicians, we can work together to help these villages achieve agriculture and economic self-sufficiency.

In July and August, CREATE! field technicians worked with community volunteers to rehabilitate existing wells and install solar-powered water pumps and gravity-fed irrigation systems in the Santhie and Dahra garden sites. Now that access to clean, abundant, and affordable water is secured in these communities, CREATE!’s field technicians are beginning to teach women how to grow irrigated vegetable crops.

In CREATE!’s other partner communities, cooperative members continue to expertly tend their flourishing vegetable gardens. The Fass Kane cooperative harvested hundreds of pounds of vegetables over the past two months. Ndeye of Fass Koffe has been part of the Fass Kane cooperative for the past six years and says, “With the knowledge that I have learned from CREATE! field technicians, I can now support myself forever!”

In July – at the height of the annual rainy season – CREATE! partner communities planted over 11,000 trees as part of our annual tree planting campaign. Trees provide shade, moderate temperatures, and produce fruit and nuts. In addition to planting trees in their garden sites, cooperative members also distributed tree seedlings to families throughout their communities. Sophie of Fass Koffe says, “With the tree planting program, we all now have shade to sit under while it’s hot.” CREATE!’s tree planting campaign would be impossible without ongoing access to abundant water from rehabilitated wells to nourish growing tree seedlings.

Want to learn more about CREATE!? Stay updated by signing up for our email list, becoming our friend on Facebook, and checking out our blog!

Eggplant harvest in Back Samba Dior

Rehabilitating the Santhie well

Preparing to plant tree seedlings

Cooperative members plant 1000s of tree seedlings

Rehabilitating a well using a hand-powered winch

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Jul 12, 2017
Your Donation to CREATE! Matched Today at 50%

By Kaitlyn Grigsby-Hall | CREATE! Grants Manager & Project Leader

Diarra in the Gagnick Mack garden

Friends,

Thanks to your support, hundreds of families in rural Senegal now have clean, abundant, and affordable water! As in all of CREATE!’s partner communities, soon the villages of Keur Daouda and Back Samba Dior will have access to abundant water to help cooperative gardens thrive and ensure that families can eat fresh, nutritious vegetables year-round, even during the hottest part of the year.

Unfortunately, there are other communities in Senegal who don’t have the access to water required to grow their own vegetables. CREATE! wants to change that. For today only, GlobalGiving is matching new donations to this project at 50%! Imagine – your donation of $100 today will become $150 that CREATE! can use to help families in rural Senegal gain new agricultural skills and economic livelihoods, made possible through well rehabilitation and solar pumps that provide year-round access to clean, abundant water.

Even at the height of the dry season, cooperative groups in Keur Daouda are expanding their vegetable production. Women are learning new agricultural skills such as transplanting vegetable seedlings and proper watering and weeding techniques. The cooperative is already harvesting okra, turnips, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce to bring home to their families and to sell in local markets.

What does clean water mean for families in rural Senegal? With access to abundant and affordable water, CREATE! agricultural cooperative members are able to grow vegetables year-round in desert-like conditions for the first time ever. In Gagnick Mack, Diarra says, “With access to clean water, it is now possible for us to grow vegetables throughout the year. For the past two years, since we first partnered with CREATE!, we have been eating fresh, nutritious vegetables grown in our village.”

Want to learn more about CREATE!? Stay updated by signing up for our email list, becoming our friend on Facebook, and checking out our blog!

Best wishes,

Kaitlyn

Transplanting lettuce seedlings

Weeding pepper plants in Darou Diadji

Women water vegetables twice daily in hot weather

Women in Darou Diadji harvest tomatoes

Onions are an important dry season crop

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May 16, 2017
Gardening Underway in New Communities

By Kaitlyn Grigsby-Hall | CREATE! Grants Manager & Project Leader

Ndeye says her "life has been transformed forever"

With your support, CREATE! is changing the lives of hundreds of women and their families in rural Senegal. By providing access to abundant water and training from CREATE! field technicians, rural communities can advance towards achieving agricultural and economic self-sufficiency.

In January and February, CREATE! field technicians worked with community volunteers to rehabilitate existing wells and install solar-powered water pumps and gravity-fed irrigation systems in the Back Samba Dior and Keur Daouda garden sites. Now that access to clean, abundant, and affordable water is secured in these communities, CREATE!’s field team is transitioning to the next stage of our partnership with these villages.

In both communities, technicians have organized residents into cooperative groups and initiated training and mobilization activities. Cooperative members now know how to create seedling nurseries and sow seeds. They can also build planting beds and transplant vegetable seedlings. Participants are also learning how to properly water vegetable plants and how to use compost to improve soil productivity. Over the next several months, field technicians will continue to work with cooperative members to strengthen and expand these agricultural skills.

Cooperatives in Back Samba Dior and Keur Daouda are learning how to grow a variety of vegetables commonly eaten in Senegal, including lettuce, okra, eggplant, tomatoes, onions, and peppers. In just a few weeks, cooperative members will begin to harvest these vegetables to sell and to consume at home, helping to ensure that families in these villages have secure access to healthy food.

Access to abundant, clean water and training in vegetable cultivation has transformed the lives of women in CREATE! partner villages. Ndeye of Diender, who lives in a big household with her children and grandchildren, says, “Before CREATE!, I had no purpose. There was nothing for me to do at home. Now, I work at the garden site every day. I feel useful again.” Ndeye believes that Diender has fundamentally changed since the community partnered with CREATE! six years ago. She says, “I have seen the work of many NGOs in Senegal, but CREATE! is the best.”

Want to learn more about CREATE!? Stay updated by signing up for our email list, becoming our friend on Facebook, and checking out our blog!

New water basins for irrigation in Keur Daouda

Learning how to prepare vegetable beds

Technicians teach women to transplant seedlings

With water, women can grow lettuce year-round

Signing partnership agreement with newest village

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