By Paulomi Bhattacharyya | CREATE! Development Associate & Project Leader
Every year, CREATE! partners with two to three new rural communities to improve their access to clean water in an environmentally appropriate way. But how does this clean water affect the lives of the people in these communities? In this report, we will try to answer that question with pictures and data, showing how, with your generous support of our program, the lives as well as the livelihoods of the rural Senegalese people are changing.
In CREATE!s integrated sequential approach to program activities, water is the cornerstone. With improved access to perennial water, partner communities can cultivate nutritious food year round in the otherwise dry and arid region of Senegal. This nutritious food not only improves the health of the community, but also makes possible an improved livelihood through the sale of their excess vegetable production. The income that the communities thus generate helps them pay for small businesses, purchase of other essential commodities as well as the extra spending during major holidays.
In 2019, CREATE! had 15 functioning partner communities who had access to clean water. Let us look at what they achieved with this water. With more than 300,000 liters of water being pumped daily from all the 15 rehabilitated wells using solar power, the communities were able to drink clean water and cultivate five to seven different varieties of nutritious fruits and vegetables. This helped improve the nutrition of the women beneficiaries of our programs with more than 98% of women in our active partner communities achieving Minimum Dietary Diversity, a verifiable nutritional indicator. Community members also produced nearly 20 tons of fresh vegetables for consumption and sale. The income that they generated through the sale of the vegetables helped them save money for future activities. Women in our partner communities each saved $20-$27 per month. These savings have allowed women to start small businesses. For example, women in some communities have started their own poultry raising activities after receiving training from CREATE! technicians on the proper method to do that. This has improved their nutrition further together with increasing their income.
The economic security the women achieve with the training from CREATE! technicians empower them for the future. In our partner communities, women take on leadership positions within the garden cooperative groups and the Voluntary Savings and Lending Associations they become a part of to save more, often for the first time. This gives them the confidence to become equal partners in family decisions and the belief in their abilities to be change-makers. None of this would have been possible without your support to improve their access to clean water.
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