Our Model
Build trust with the village.
Learn about social barriers that maintain poverty.
Build women’s gardens with training & dignity.
We start all projects by listening to villagers’ burdens and ideas. Men share their cultural mindset of work, and about always being asked for money as husbands. Women describe their 4 to 8 hours of fetching water every day, and having no time or energy left.
This poverty trap is our starting point.
And we do things differently. Our female trainers teach women how to grow healthier food. Solar-powered irrigation eliminates the habit of women as unpaid water carriers. The women learn about compost and soils, management and vitamins, and crop rotation with a keen eye on local supply and demand.
Our Unique Methodology
Engage around climate change.
Connect change with cultural adaptation.
Transition from barter to market economy.
Like many African cultures, the Senegalese love humour. We therefore start with the funny side. It builds interest and connections, while we learn their farming and cultural histories. The men tell us the loss of rain means immediate change is needed to address their loss in food.
This is the game changer.
Men’s acknowledgement of the need for immediate change allows the discussion to shift towards the role of women. It’s women who keep African villages afloat, but their energy is controlled by those 40 billion hours in the wrong place.
With tons of laughter and training, this is about women gaining more respect. Within 3 years, they take over their five acres of healthy crops, becoming the economic engine of their village. And they no longer have to ask their husbands for money.
Community & Co-Development
International Development seems to have a long history of failure. We try to address that reality by listening to and respecting the complex hierarchy of each village. We learn as much from them as they do from us. And they need a buy-in to accept a project focused on women gaining their autonomy.
We help build women’s gardens but require the men’s help (and little boys too). Men are often major decision makers here, and we respectfully work within that powerful reality. We chose the villages carefully, based on men & women’s commitments during our 6-months of analysis and assessment meetings.
The village chief is our first contact, and he is always kept aware of what we are doing in his community. It is the village chief who decides which men will volunteer their time with us on which days. When men & boys show up to dig, and rake and carry bags of compost on their heads, on a village project aimed at women gaining more respect, we know we are headed in the right direction.
