Economic Growth Senegal Project #48197

Water and Food for 2,000 People in Rural Senegal

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

Project Report | Jan 20, 2026
Building Sustainable Food Futures in Keur Mandongo

By Paulomi Bhattacharyya | Project Leader

Dear Friends of CREATE!,

As we begin a new year, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for your generous support, which has enabled us to continue our vital partnerships with rural communities in Senegal and support them in sustaining and improving their lives and livelihoods. Each community’s journey with CREATE! spans four years of direct collaboration, moving through carefully designed stages that lay the foundation for long-term sustainability. In this report, I would like to walk you through some of those key steps undertaken over the past year by the women of our partner community, Keur Mandongo.

The Keur Mandongo community garden was established in 2025 to promote sustainable agricultural practices and improve local food security. Over the course of the year, the women learned how to prepare their garden site, cultivate a diverse range of crops in line with recommended agricultural practices, and harvest and sell their produce in local markets. A critical first step in this process was the preparation of organic compost to improve soil quality. The women were trained to separate organic waste—such as kitchen scraps and animal manure—from non-compostable materials and to create compost piles within the garden. By alternating layers of nitrogen-rich “green” materials with carbon-rich “brown” materials, ensuring moderate watering, and regularly aerating the piles to promote oxygenation, they produced nutrient-rich compost ready for use as fertilizer.

The next stage focused on preparing vegetable beds and planting or transplanting seeds and saplings. The women marked out their plots according to recommended crop spacing, created planting holes using hand-held hoes, and enriched each hole with compost they had produced themselves. Once the beds were prepared, they planted a variety of crops, including chili peppers, eggplants, turnips, butternut squash, and okra, among others. They also learned to align planting schedules with seasonal calendars and local market demand, allowing them to plan ahead and ensure continuous production and year-round harvests. Through rigorous monitoring and regular maintenance, the women were able to achieve strong yields at each harvest period.

At harvest time, the women formed a harvest and sales committee responsible for overseeing both collection and sales in local weekly markets, which serve as their primary sales channel. These markets allow the women to sell directly to customers, eliminating intermediaries and increasing profit margins. Selling their produce locally has also improved product visibility and recognition while stimulating the local economy. In addition, the women exchanged or sold vegetables among themselves, further strengthening community solidarity.

With the support of their technical supervisor, the women of Keur Mandongo successfully navigated all of these steps in 2025, demonstrating remarkable commitment and perseverance. Their motivation has been reinforced by tangible results—higher vegetable yields, increased recognition within the community, and initial income from sales. These achievements have strengthened their determination to continue improving their agricultural practices and to make Keur Mandongo a benchmark for local agroecology. This progress is possible because of the continued support of donors like you. From all of us at CREATE!, and from the women of Keur Mandongo, thank you for making this journey possible.

Learning to create vegetable beds with spacings

Planting organic vegetables in the prepared beds

Watering the Saplings to promote growth

Harvesting their produce with a smile

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Sep 25, 2025
Creating Hope: Empowerment in Loumbeul, Senegal

By Shahinur Bashar | Ms

We are excited to share the progress of our ambitious water and food project in the Guinguineo District of rural Senegal. With your support, CREATE! aims to help 2000 people gain access to clean water, food security, better nutrition, and healthy lives by using environmentally friendly technologies and nature-based solutions.

In this update, we take this opportunity to share our initiative with the Loumbeul village in Senegal. This village initiated its program activities last year and has demonstrated promising growth over the past few months. With generous support, this community has installed a solar pumping system and two irrigation systems. This community has already begun growing vegetables such as lettuce, turnips, and eggplants, and has prepared the land to cultivate additional vegetables, including cabbage, okra, beetroot, and many other varieties. Every day, they can fill the six basins and the reservoir. Through this, they can get a sufficient water supply and can regularly irrigate their land. Additionally, they are receiving training on improved stoves at the site through CREATE! team, and they plan to expand if good clay is available.

You are making it happen! With the help of CREATE! and our community members, we can support them in accessing food and water.

Hear directly from the community about how your generous donation is making a difference in their lives. Our beneficiary from Loumbeul says,

“Thanks to CREATE!'s support, we have been able to garden, thanks to the abundant water from the rehabilitated well. The training we received in sustainable gardening techniques, and the use of compost has really allowed us to improve the quality and quantity of our production”.

They also added, “A large part of our expenses used to go towards buying vegetables at the market. Now, we buy much less, and we do it without leaving the village. We save this money for other essential needs."

We proudly reaffirm that women are the true heart of this remarkable change. Thanks to you, they get agricultural training, and they’re stepping up as community leaders, shaping a brighter future for everyone. Every well that’s brought back to life and every tree planted is more than just progressing; it’s a symbol of hope and a big step towards self-reliance, especially as we all face the challenges of a changing climate. It’s inspiring to see how women are at the forefront, making food and water security a reality for their communities!

As one of the community members said,

"I am proud to see the inhabitants of Loumbéul united, motivated, and hard-working. CREATE! has not only given us material support, but also confidence in ourselves and our ability to build a better future." (Fatou Ndiaye, Loumbeul President).

Thank you so much for embarking on this journey of change with us!

To learn more about CREATE!, check out our Blog, like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram.

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May 27, 2025
Designing Resilience inside Loumbeul's Garden

By Paulomi Bhattacharyya | CREATE! co-Executive Director and Project Leader

First Harvest in Loumbeul

Dear Friends of CREATE!,

As we embrace the beginning of summer here in the US, our partner communities in Senegal are already facing temperatures as high as 105 F and more. This heat notwithstanding, communities are continuing their work in their gardens, producing vegetables that are a source of nutrition and income. One such community is Loumbeul, located in the Linguere region of Senegal. CREATE!’s 23^rd partner community, Loumbeul signed a memorandum of understanding with us in December 2024 and by March 2025, they had already started planting seeds in their cooperative garden.

Have you ever wondered though exactly how these gardens are set up? What goes behind their design that makes them a success and a place for the women to gather even during the very hot days? If you have, then let me walk you through that process today with Loumbeul.

Once the well in Loumbeul was rehabilitated and water was flowing with help of the solar powered pumping system, the women from the community gathered with the CREATE! team to effectively plan and implement the garden design itself. The first thing they did was clear and fence the area. Once the land was delineated, the community worked to fence the area using sustainable materials. While wood blends well with the landscape, it requires regular maintenance. That is why, the community opted for metal posts and wire mesh. This demarcation of the land is an important step to not only give the garden a structure but to also protect the crops from animals and other pests. Once the community starts gardening in earnest, they will plant hedges and trees around the wire meshes that will grow to become living fences, protecting not only against animals but also the hot dry harmattan winds.

Following the fences, the community started installing the gravity fed irrigation system which included a reservoir and six water basins as well as drip irrigation. The 5000 liter water reservoir was placed on a platform build for this purpose and the water basins were spread out across the field where they were sheltered from strong winds and were away from existing tree roots. The drip irrigation system covered the rest of the field. The whole system was set up such that the women could use both to water their plants. The plant nurseries which are manually watered were set up near the basins for easy watering by the women. The main plant beds were set up along the drip system to optimize irrigation, reduce water loss and improve crop productivity. Once the irrigation system was installed, the women were ready to start planting. Seeds were purchased keeping in mind Loumbeul’s climate and soil conditions to maximize crop success.

The women from the community of Loumbeul started their cooperative garden officially on March 10^th, 2025 and planted turnips and onions.They are now being trained on water management, on monitoring the seeds for proper germination, and on crop rotation which is necessary to maintain good soil health. Their garden has been set up with plant nurseries and beds to not just be aesthetically pleasing, but also based on the irrigation system. Later this year, the community will plant tree saplings within the garden in ways that will provide the women with shade in the later years while they work in their garden.

The community of Loumbeul took a significant step this year with the start of their cooperative garden activities with prospects of long-term success if they follow the good practices and make necessary adjustments as required by local conditions. This change was possible because of your continued support of our work and for that, we extend our heartfelt thanks to you. Your contributions enable us to continue our work, promoting resilience and sustainable development in all our partner communities like Loumbeul.

Cleaning the garden site

Building fences

Installed: Water basins and drip irrigation

Plant beds with drip irrigation

Women manually watering nurseries near basins

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