Water and Food for 2,000 People in Rural Senegal

Friends,

All of us at CREATE! would like to thank you for your generosity that has helped us continue partnering with rural communities in Senegal, helping them improve their access to water and food. Today, I want to focus on the community of Keur Ndiouga and how the community is flourishing due to your support.

Situated in the Fatick region of Senegal, the community of Keur Ndiouga started their partnership with CREATE! by signing the Memorandum of Understanding in 2021. The community was in the unique position of possessing a shallow well, a borehole and grain storage infrastructure from previously collaborating with a government-run agriculture project that had ended with no chance of sustainability. After starting partnership with CREATE!, their borehole was rehabilitated and the solar pumping system was installed. Since their well was too far away from the cooperative garden, the borehole was chosen as the water source for the garden while the well meets domestic consumption needs. The solar pumps CREATE! uses for its projects are small enough to be installed in a borehole. With the help of this pump and panels, the community now has access to 27000 liters of water every day out of which they consume 8000 liters and use rest for agriculture. Before the solar pumps, the women in the community had to pull out water manually, which made it very difficult to sustain any agricultural activities. Now, with the pumping system, water is being pumped out and stored easily for the women to use. The community has also installed the gravity fed irrigation system to irrigate their fields. The 417 men and women in the community of Keur Ndiouga are now benefitting from this water.

As Lena, the community garden President of Keur Ndiouga mentions, the access to perennial water through the solar pumping system has helped them immensely. Lena also says that before CREATE!, her group was gardening, but they never had a good production because they were working without any training or direction. That changed after their partnership with CREATE! was formalized and the technicians started training the group on organic and sustainable agricultural activities. With this training and the water from the borehole, the 84 women and 2 men in Keur Ndiouga’s garden are now producing a variety of nutritious vegetables every month. In 2022, they produced nearly 350 pounds of fruits and vegetables on an average every month. Most of the vegetables that they produce are common in Senegalese diet like okra, tomatoes, eggplants, African eggplants, turnips, bell peppers and watermelons. Their fresh vegetables produced organically is attracting buyers from surrounding villages since these vegetables do not spoil easily. Together with vegetables and fruits, the community has also planted a number of trees in an effort to prevent desertification. Their garden thus has rows of papaya and moringa trees that provide food and shade. With such productive activities, the community is on its way to improving its food security and self-sufficiency.

Keur Ndiouga is now in its second year of production activities and the women are committed to continue their programs for years to come. Implementation and continuation of activities in Keur Ndiouga has been possible with the generous support of donors like you. The women of the community and all of us at CREATE! are grateful for this support.

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Friends,

All of us at CREATE! would like to thank you for your generosity that has helped us continue partnering with rural communities in Senegal, helping them sustain and improve their lives and livelihoods. As CREATE!’s Development Associate, I recently got the chance to visit these communities and would like to share with you the story of our partner community of Diabel; a story about growth and change and resilience, but above everything, a story of hope.

Situated in the Fatick region of Senegal, Diabel is a community that has a desert like climate common to most regions of Senegal. My first visit to Diabel had been in February 2020, right before the pandemic started. From the minute I set foot in their community garden, I was overwhelmed with the passion and the joy I saw in the women there, working tirelessly in above 100F temperatures to grow vegetables in the sand. Diabel had just started their second year of project activities back in February 2020. The enthusiasm of the women as they worked towards a sustainable food secure future for themselves was palpable. They showed me around proudly, the vegetables they were growing and harvesting, the papaya trees they had just planted, the Acacia Olos they hoped would one day provide them protection from the harsh harmattan winds. As I took pictures of everything around me, I believed in their enthusiasm and hoped that their community garden would flourish under these harsh climatic conditions of rural Senegal.

Two years down the road, I got the opportunity to revisit Diabel this June and witness the change in a pandemic ridden world. The familiar faces I saw seemed a little tired, even maybe more drawn than before, but the enthusiasm was intact. COVID has affected Senegal adversely, with life becoming more expensive and unpredictable. Diabel has gone through the pandemic in the same way as any other rural community, changing the way they worked to accommodate the safety regulations. But the pandemic was not the only problem that Diabel encountered. The community has also faced terrible locust attacks in recent months that has decimated a huge part of their crops. It is very demoralizing to see your hard work destroyed overnight, but with the help of the CREATE! technicians, the community persevered. Even though the vegetable plots were rendered empty by the locusts, the nurseries established to replenish those crops were thriving.

Apart from the nutritious vegetables, Diabel has also been planting trees. Reforestation is a very important element of CREATE!’s program in rural Senegal, an attempt to reduce desertification. The positive effects of having trees in the community garden can be seen easily in Diabel. Not only does the garden look beautiful and green, it also has shade that makes it easier for the women to keep working in the summer afternoons. Over the last 2 years, the women of Diabel have not only planted more trees, but have taken good care of them. The papaya trees which were new in 2020 were now twice my size, the Acacia Olos, which were mere saplings are now more than 8 feet tall, forming live protective barriers for the garden.

The women of Diabel have learned to cope with adversities like a pandemic and attacks of pests like locusts that have destroyed their hard work. During my recent visit, what I saw in the faces of the women who were working continuously to turn their sandy garden green was determination and hope. This hope has allowed them to endure and overcome all adversities. As the women told me themselves, they will continue their projects even after they graduate from CREATE!’s programs because they believe in the work, they believe in their ability to improve their own lives.

Support from donors like you has made it possible for the women to keep hoping for a better future. The women of Diabel and all of us at CREATE! are grateful for this support.

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