Clean Water for 1,500 People in Rural Senegal

This #GivingTuesday, you have the opportunity to change the lives of hundreds of women and their families in rural Senegal. Today only, GivingGiving is partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to match every dollar donated by 50%. Your donation of $100 today will become $150 that will help CREATE! provide access to clean, abundant, and affordable water so that rural communities can gain new agricultural skills and economic livelihoods. Your support makes a difference!

“CREATE!’s programs have transformed Darou Diadji. Our village is forever changed.” Although Awa is nearly 90, she still enjoys working in the village’s cooperative garden and is happy that her family is now able to eat fresh vegetables daily. With access to water from Darou Diadji’s rehabilitated well, Awa now feels healthier and no longer suffers from knee pain. Awa adds, “When other NGOs came to Darou Diadji, they failed because their philosophy did not fit. We appreciate CREATE! because they know how to help communities develop forever.”

Thanks to your support, CREATE! is now working with community volunteers to rehabilitate wells in the villages of Back Samba Dior, Ndéguélère, and Keur Daouda. By rehabilitating these abandoned wells, we can ensure that these communities have consistent access to clean, abundant water. CREATE! will then install solar-powered pumps and gravity-fed irrigation systems at each well site. Cooperative members in Back Samba Dior, Ndéguélère, and Keur Daouda are eager to start going fresh vegetables year-round for the first time ever!

Your donations have also ensured that the villages of Walo, Gagnick Mack, and Darou Diadji continue to receive training in sustainable agriculture techniques. With this training and access to clean, abundant, and affordable water, these cooperative gardens continue to thrive. The Darou Diadji garden is one of the largest in any CREATE! partner community – nearly 2 ½ acres in size. CREATE! field technician Ousmane Diallo has worked with cooperative members to train them in the cultivation of eggplants, onions, lettuce, peppers, mint, tomatoes, and many other vegetables. The Darou Diadji garden site also has a large fruit orchard, including papaya and banana trees.

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!

Links:

• Visit the CREATE! homepage
• Read more about a recent visit to Darou Diadji
• Visit the CREATE! blog

“Our village used to cut down many trees for firewood because we cooked over open fires that were very wasteful.” Absa of Darou Diadji adds, “Thanks to our improved cookstoves and access to abundant water, we are able to have an annual tree planting campaign. There are now lots of trees in Darou Diadji!”

Thanks to your support, hundreds of families in rural Senegal now have clean, abundant, and affordable water! Throughout CREATE!’s partner communities, access to abundant water helps cooperative gardens thrive and ensures that families can eat fresh, nutritious vegetables year-round.

While clean, abundant, and affordable water is essential for growing vegetables, it is also important for nurturing the tree seedlings that our communities plant during the annual reforestation campaign. During the dry season, community members raise between 2,000 and 3,000 seedlings in tree nurseries located in each community garden site. Women rely on water from CREATE!’s rehabilitated wells to help the tree seedlings thrive in the hot, dry weather of the long Senegalese dry season. Now that the annual rainy season has started, cooperative members are working with CREATE! staff to plant thousands of tree seedlings within the garden sites and throughout their communities. Trees provide shade, moderate temperatures, and produce fruit and nuts. They also serve as windbreaks and living fences in community garden sites.

Seni, 18, thanks the annual CREATE! tree planting campaign and her improved cookstove for helping the community “stop chopping down trees and creating deforestation.” She continues: “CREATE! helps communities develop themselves; I wish for the success of CREATE! around Senegal!”

The communities of Bac Sambadior, Ndéguélère, and Keur Daouda dream of establishing their own tree nurseries next year. Will you help them? Your donation will help CREATE! provide access to clean, abundant, and affordable water so that rural communities can gain new agricultural skills and economic livelihoods. Your support makes a difference!

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!

Links:

• Visit the CREATE! Homepage
• Read more about CREATE!'s recent tree campaign
• Visit the CREATE! Blog