By Paulomi Bhattacharyya | CREATE! co-Executive Director & Project Leader
Dear Friends,
We at CREATE! thank you for your continued support of our reforestation program in rural Senegal. As you know. over the years, we have been able to increase the number of trees planted significantly. These trees have created micro-climates in some of the driest regions of Senegal and allowed CREATE!’s partner communities to thrive. In this report, I want to take you to one such region of Senegal: Louga. Situated towards the North of the country, Louga is in the Sahel region of Senegal, known for being hot and dry for most of the year. CREATE! has two active partner communities in this region, Santhie and Wereyane, who have participated in the reforestation program for more than 5 years.
Water scarcity in the Louga region means both Santhie and Wereyane have limited water in their rehabilitated wells to use for gardening. But with that limited water, not only have these communities planted and maintained a variety of trees over the years, but have also successfully increased the numbers planted. Back in 2019, when the communities had just started, they planted about 2000 trees each. But by 2022, they had each doubled that to 4000-5000 trees. They have planted Acacia Meliferas and Acacia Olos for the fences and have planted fruit and nut trees for consumption. The Acacias planted back in 2019 are now tall enough to protect the community garden from violent winds and sandstorms.
By the end of 2022, the communities of Santhie and Wereyane had a variety of trees including cashews, lemons, guava, jujube, papaya, henna, moringa. The women from the community continue to maintain these trees, pruning when necessary and harvesting them in season. While the fruits and nuts are consumed, morinaga leaves and henna are also harvested and sold for profit. Both Santhie and Wereyane have created micro-climates in their community gardens by planting trees. The shade given by the trees help the women work in the gardens during the day as it keeps the area cool. Since the women now understand the benefits these trees provide, they are excited about continuing this campaign for their future generations. The communities have already started preparing the sapling packets for 2023. We are hopeful that with your support, this year’s campaign will be as successful as the earlier ones. From all of us at CREATE! and from the women we work with, we thank you all for making this work.
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