One year ago, the communities of Diabel and Yougouré gained access to water using solar technology for the first time ever! Since then, they’ve made immense progress over the last year towards building more sustainable communities. We are so inspired to work with such diligent and passionate people.
Since Diabel and Yougouré first partnered with CREATE!, they have participated in weekly agriculture trainings. This includes composting methods, watering techniques, planning future garden activities and more. Both communities planted a wide variety of vegetables and harvesting thousands of pounds of produce in the last year. Members plan and plant their garden beds with vegetables popular in the local diet – including tomatoes, onions, peppers, okra, eggplant, and lettuce. Diabel and Yougouré also participated in their first tree-planting campaigns as well, planting over several thousand saplings and gifting more to surrounding villages.
Words from the Cooperative Garden Presidents
Diabel’s Cooperative Garden President, Khady Ndiaye, is a mother supporting a family of nine. Khady and other women in the community used to travel miles away every week to a market in the city of Touba. Between the cost of travel time and vegetable prices, Khady was not able to buy produce for her family every week. “Our children eat a lot of vegetables now,” she explains. “Vegetables were very expensive before, but now we can get them without leaving the village.” Now, Khady and the other women in Diabel return to the weekly market to sell their extra produce and generate income for their families.
Yougouré’s Cooperative Garden President, Boury Thiam, is a mother supporting a family of eight. Before Boury and other women in Yougoure developed a community garden, they could only work during the three-month rainy season. Unfortunately, this meant that for nine-months, many women could not find work in their village to help support their family. “I have an occupation in the village now,” She tells us. “Now that women are working in the village they don’t need to leave their families. We are able to work and take care of our children.”
Let’s take a look at some photo highlights from Diabel and Yougouré’s progress over the last year:
Diabel
Before: January 2019
After: December 2019
Yougouré
Before: January 2019
After: December 2019
Building Sustainable Communities: What Comes Next?
The next step for Diabel and Yougouré is poultry raising. Part of developing sustainable communities is creating a stable income that families can depend on year-round. Community gardens secure food security in villages as well as give women a way to generate income when they sell the extra produce in the market. However, learning to raise poultry means that women are not only able to bring an important source of protein into their family’s diets, but now they also have an additional source of income from the chickens they sell in the local markets. This is a significant milestone because this project will help take them even further along the path of income generation and overall self-sufficiency!
Once Diabel and Yougouré have secured their income-generating techniques, CREATE! technicians will assist community members to form VSLAs (Voluntary Savings and Lending Association). VSLAs provide an accessible and effective system for group saving, lending, and social insurance. An association made up of 10-25 women who save their money together and take small loans from their savings over a one-year cycle. In a VSLA, the interest that borrowers pay in the program goes back into the fund that people borrow from.
By supporting CREATE!’s programs, you can help more communities in rural Senegal develop self-sufficiency like Diabel and Yougoure. Consider donating to CREATE! today to invest in a sustainable future in rural Senegal.