Water for Aida

“It takes a village” might be a phrase which originated in Africa, but it’s become an accepted sentiment in our modern society: no matter where you call home, everyone depends on a vast ecosystem of support for all aspects of our lives. Personal effort makes a difference, but when one or more societal infrastructures are lacking it’s all too easy for any amount of effort to fail to lift people out of poverty.

Aida Mbaye has served as the midwife in her village of Seno Bowal for over 25 years.

This is exactly what the village of Seno Bowal is facing. You may recall that last year we constructed a vitally needed health post here which was an immediate success… that is until their water tower broke down. A health post without clean running water isn’t much help. Thankfully they were able to find a temporary solution, but their water situation remains perilous.

For nearly a year residents of Seno Bowal had to rely on water brought in by donkey cart from a well six miles away.

“Here we are in a dry area, a very dry area. We do not have enough water. It’s very dry. We are not close to the river, we are not close to anything. We are depending on the rainy season.
”

— Aida, Midwife at Seno Bowal

Lack of water prevents Aida from serving her community, but an even bigger problem is that the community cannot survive without water. Water is life!

Mother and daughter walking outside the village of Seno Bowal.

Bodiel Fall (left), representative of the village chief, first alerted Andando to the issue and helped to develop our planned intervention.

Seno Bowal is the water source for 10 villages and over 5,000 people, along with an additional 30,000 livestock! It is a vital regional resource, but unfortunately, they have struggled with insufficient water and breakdowns for years.

The good news is that the problem is solvable! The constant breakdowns stem from piecemeal temporary fixes which never addressed the root cause of the problem: an undersized well which simply can’t meet the demand.

Seno Bowal’s water tower, which has the potential to provide water for 10 villages and over 5,000 people!

We need your help to get water for Aida and her community.

We can drill a new deep borehole well which will solve this problem once and for all! Once the water problem is solved, we can then install a market garden which will not only provide year-round food for all 2,200 residents of Seno Bowal, but also help them remain on their ancestral lands.

Photo Caption: Members of Seno Bowal who will benefit from a new well and market garden that will allow them to remain on their ancestral lands.

How can we help?

We need to raise $50,000 to fix the water problem and install a new market garden. Will you walk alongside Aida so she can continue to provide quality medical care to her village and not have to worry if the water will turn on?

From the Director - April 2024

Greetings from Senegal! I am currently here working with the our team to finalize our projects for 2024, so stay tuned to hear about all the exciting new partnerships that your support is making possible.

Thiam, Andando’s Podor Programs Manager, meeting with the village of Mbida to formalize our partnership to build a new health post.

In the meantime, we have some incredible news out of Podor where we have broken ground on our 15th health post in the remote village of Mdiba! This project has been in the works for a long time, and thanks to your incredible support during our year-end giving campaign, along with the continued generosity of Hub City Church, we were able to say yes to this community! We gave them the good news over the phone, but the conversation didn’t get very far as everyone started cheering and celebrating.

This currently barren land will be the site of another life-changing health post. What is now dusty and dry will become a bright, cheerful, and safe place for expectant mothers to give birth with the support of experienced midwives.

Andando’s newest partner garden in Wouro Kelle is off to an incredible start harvesting over 5,000 lbs. of produce already in their very first season! Their dedication and hard work is proof of how much our partners value this opportunity and why we must keep pushing into more remote and underserved areas where few if any other NGO’s are operating.

Fatou Sékke shows off her harvest for the day. Over 5,000 pounds of produce has already been harvested by the women of Wouro Kelle in their very first season!

“We are really happy with this garden. We grow so many vegetables and all organic. We notice now our health is improving.”

— Fatou Ibra Sékke

Lastly, thanks to the help of Rick Steves Climate Smart Commitment, our tree nurseries in both Podor and Keur Soce are starting to produce tens of thousands of native tree seedlings to support our gardens and regional reforestation efforts. Climate change is hitting Senegal hard, and our partner communities have asked us to help them to regreen the Sahel. We could not be happier to be able to support them in this ambitious goal.

All of Andando’s partner communities are coming together this year with the goal of planting 100,000 trees!

Thank you for everything that you are doing to help our partner communities to thrive.

Aquaculture: A Game Changer for Market Gardens

The members of our pilot gardens have mastered the aquaculture process, from fish breeding all the way through to harvest.

After two years of diligent work on our pilot aquaculture project, our team and partners agree: it is an absolute game changer for market gardens! We went into this project with high hopes but a healthy dose of skepticism. Would we be able to sustain perpetual production, could we develop sustainable supply chains for fish feed, and what would the impact be on the gardens’ precious water resources?

Carefully tracking the number, weight, and health of the fish enables participants to maximize growth and use fish feed most efficiently.

Watching our partners master the process and slowly answer these questions over the past two years has been incredible. The hard data shows the success in numbers; each of our pilot gardens have increased their yields and profits dramatically, all with zero net increase in water use. More importantly though, the participant testimonials show the real impacts:

“Our children and everyone in the house eats fish from the project now. We get money from the fish, and we use the water to irrigate our crops which helps them to grow. We really see the effect in the garden.”

— Koumba Daga, Irasso Garden participant

“We don’t trust the fish from the market. It comes from the ocean, and we don’t know how old it is. Now we have our own fish right here. We can go now and have it right away and cook it immediately. We thank god for this.”

— Racky Ndiaye, Lamarame Garden participant

Keur Soce High School joined the project as well this year with two fish basins in their new STEM teaching garden, and due to their quick success and all the benefits we’ve seen, Andando is now seeking to integrate fish farming into all of our gardens over the next several years.

Students learning hands-on aquaculture skills at the new STEM teaching garden at Keur Soce High School.

Thanks to a generous grant from The Tomberg Family Philanthropies, we are taking our first steps in this direction by extending the project to two gardens in our Podor region this year. With your support, we can expand even further and help our partners to gain greater food security, nutrition, and financial stability.

A member of the Keur Wack garden shows off her lettuce seedlings. All of our pilot gardens have increased their production of fast growing high value crops.

A Monumental Year for Education

By working hand in hand for over a decade with the Senegalese Ministry of Education Andando has been able to systematically address student needs in nearly all of our partner communities. We started by eliminating temporary primary school classrooms in remote villages and year after year as we built classrooms, students kept growing, and succeeding. Soon the obstacle became access to middle schools, and then high schools. Andando’s intervention grew right along with the children of our partner communities until we arrived at this monumental year of education for Andando with the completion of Ndiawara Middle School, Donaye Taredji High School, and Keur Soce High School. Here is what one of the teachers in Keur Soce had to say about the impacts they are already seeing:

“If today we have a high school, it’s thanks to Andando. And we’re very thankful to you, who provided us with classrooms the way they should be with floors and walls well made. Before, the classes we had were shelters with lots of dust. The effects of the dust on the kids and their clothes was so bad. Now that we have clean floors, we can work without getting dirty. We say bravo to Andando.”

— Mr. Touré, Science Teacher at Keur Soce High School

When talking with the principal of Donaye Teredji High School we also learned that 100% of the students who took the advanced S2 science course, held in the new classrooms we constructed passed their exams!  Because of this tremendous success and the improved school infrastructure the Education Ministry has decided to offer the highest high school level science course, S1, here in the fall of 2023.  This is the first time this course will be offered in the region outside of Saint Louis, which is over 120 miles away!  Very few families have the means to send their children away for school, especially to large cities, so when courses aren’t offered locally that usually means the end of a student’s education in that subject.  We are thrilled for these students’ accomplishments and are so happy that they can now continue their education without changing schools.  

Students in the advanced science class at Donaye Teredji High School who all passed their exams!

It isn’t just a lack of classrooms that can keep kids from continuing their education though. Access to sanitary bathrooms has a big impact on student success and can help to drastically increase attendance and enrollment, especially for girls.  UNESCO estimates that 1 in 10 girls in Sub-Saharan Africa miss school during their menstrual cycle due to lack of facilities or sanitary products. This is hugely detrimental to their education and increases the chance that they will drop out of school prematurely.  It is a well-established fact that when girls succeed communities succeed.

“Girls’ education strengthens economies and reduces inequality. It contributes to more stable, resilient societies that give all individuals – including boys and men – the opportunity to fulfill their potential.”

— UNICEF

One of the beautiful new blocks of latrines at Keur Soce High School.

Andando is dedicated to supporting gender equality by helping all students to stay in school, which is why we built 16 new sanitary latrines with clean running water at Keur Soce and Donnaye Taredji High Schools this year.  These facilities support over 2,000 students, more than 50% of whom are girls, so that they can focus on achieving their dreams without worry or stigma from inadequate sanitation.  As amazing as this year has been there is still a lot of work to do.  We are excited to continue listening to our partner communities and walking with them to improve education in rural Senegal.

Andando's Podor Tree Nursery is open for business!

We are thrilled to report that our tree nursery in Podor is now complete! This project is the result of years of planning and coordination with local villages, community leaders, and government agencies who all want to use trees to help fight climate change. Podor is located on Senegal’s northern border with Mauritania, in an ecological transition zone south of the Sahara Desert known as the Sahel. It is a harshly beautiful landscape which is home to nearly 500,000 people who now find themselves on the front lines of climate change. As rainfall patterns change and the oppressive hot season intensifies, reforestation of native trees is one of the most effective tools to hold soil on the land and prevent desertification.

The indigenous communities of the region remember when Podor used to have millions more trees which supported both people and livestock. Andando’s partner communities came together to ask us to help them to “re-green” Podor and this tree nursery is the first step in achieving that ambitious goal. None of this would have been possible without the support of the Rick Steves’ Climate Smart Commitment who awarded Andando a grant to build the infrastructure. We also want to thank the village Chief of Donaye Taredji, Mr. Nazzir, for facilitating the community land donation, along with our amazing field staff who worked so hard to shepherd this project through to completion.

Andando’s partner community of Togane has struggled to start trees locally due to the harsh conditions of the deforested landscape.

Andando received $30,000 from Rick Steves’ Climate Smart Commitment for this project!

The nursery is about half an acre in size with a perimeter chain-link fence, three watering basins and 10 shade structures. We plan to produce roughly 50,000 tree seedlings here each year, which requires a lot of water, so we drilled a 150’ deep borehole well on the property and installed the same solar pump system that we use in our gardens. We are thrilled with how everything turned out, and can’t wait to see this space filled with new tree seedlings!

So what happens now? Completing infrastructure is a great first step, but the end goal isn’t to build things, or even to start seedlings; in order to make a meaningful impact we need to successfully establish hundreds of thousands of native trees in the coming years. Andando cannot and should not do this on our own, so this past December we held meetings with village chiefs and women’s garden leaders from around the region to develop a community driven collaborative reforestation plan which meets the economic, ecological, and cultural goals of all stakeholders in the area. We also engaged in this same process in Keur Soce so that our first tree nursery can ramp up production and make a bigger impact in our partner communities there as well.

Community involvement at all levels of project planning, implementation, and evaluation is essential to Andando’s approach.

The only way that we can achieve our climate goals is by aligning them with the needs and desires of the people living in affected areas.

It has been a long road to get to this point, and we are still only at the beginning, but the possibilities are incredible. The challenges of combatting climate change can feel endless, but today we have one more tool to help us in this fight, and one more big reason for hope.

Slowly but surely the village of Togane is planting trees to help establish their regenerative permaculture garden. This year thanks to the new tree nursery they will plant at least an additional 500 native trees creating a self-sustaining oasis that improves nutrition, household income, and quality of life.

Aquaculture & Market Gardens: A Perfect Match!

A pilot garden member learning to access different markers for fish growth and health.

Overfishing of coastal waters and the Senegal river is leading to a decline in fish populations, making fresh fish rare and expensive in rural inland villages. At the same time, soils in much of Senegal are depleted, forcing farmers to purchase costly fertilizers which further damages watersheds and fish populations. Andando’s Agriculture Program drastically improves food security without using synthetic fertilizers, but our partner gardens still rely on natural amendments to ensure long term soil fertility, which aren’t always available. The nutritional benefits of the gardens, while substantial, also cannot make up for the lack of healthy protein sources for many families. Aquaculture, it turns out, has the potential to help solve all of these issues!

Karen, an Auburn University’s School of Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Sciences representative, traveled to Senegal to provide hands-on training for Andando’s staff and pilot aquaculture participants.

Our garden partners started asking for help to raise fish as far back as 2017 but we weren’t exactly sure how to get started. In 2020 Andando connected with Auburn University’s School of Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Sciences and together with their expert help and in collaboration with garden leaders we came up with a design to incorporate elevated fish basins into the irrigation systems of the gardens. The pilot project launched in 2022 with two new fish basins in each of four of Andando’s partner gardens in the Keur Soce region. Healthy aquaculture production requires daily water changes, but thanks to our existing solar pump infrastructure we were able to simply add the fish basins in “upstream” so to speak of the watering basins, without increasing water use at all. Water from the fish basins is drained to water crops each day and then is replaced by the solar pump ensuring that crops benefit from added nutrients and the fish get the fresh water they need to stay healthy.

Lamarame Garden members eagerly participating in the first fish harvest!

In a little over a year the project has already proved to be a phenomenal success. All four pilot gardens are now raising multiple profitable harvests of tilapia each year and have even succeeded in establishing local fish breeding so they can continue the project without any outside assistance. In addition to increasing the availability of fresh fish locally, the gardens have also noticed increased vegetable yields and overall garden profits. In fact the gardens participating in the pilot program now generate 38% higher individual profits per member than Andando’s other partner gardens in the Keur Soce area. Their success is very encouraging, and we hope to be able to offer the project to all of our women’s group partners in the future so that they too can gain access to fresh fish while further improving the productivity and profitability of their gardens.

From the Director - January 2024

As we move into another new year, I want to personally thank you for your support. I wish that everyone could see the incredible impacts of our work and hear the gratitude directly from our partner communities, but take a second to read these words and take them in for yourself because YOU helped to make this possible:

“As a midwife I can bear witness, all the new babies born in the village are now at least 7-9 pounds. Malnutrition has left this village; nobody is underfed now. We thank the lord, we thank everyone for this.”

— Mboyo Walo garden member

There are too many wonderful updates and stories to share, so here are just a few highlights since our last update.  Mbadhiou Peulh Primary School opened its doors this fall with three beautifully renovated classrooms and brand-new bathroom facilities.  The teachers there told us that this is the first year that classes were able to start on time with a spot for every student who wanted to enroll.

At Mbadhiou Peulh Primary school, students enjoy the renovated classrooms with enough space for everyone.

At Keur Soce High School our first-ever school garden started their first gardening campaign, which will soon support a school canteen to provide healthy meals to students from remote villages who otherwise wouldn’t have anything to eat during the school day.

Students at Keur Soce High School are improving their food security and learning practical science lessons in their new school garden.

Due to our steadfast commitment to improving access to quality education for over a decade, Andando was recently recognized with an award from Senegal’s National Minister of Education!

Andando representatives (left to right: Thiam, Fiona, Boubou, and Kevin) accepting an award from Senegal’s National Minister of Education for our significant contributions in the education sector for more than a decade.

This past fall Andando was also named as a finalist for the .ORG Impact Awards in Washington DC, out of nearly 1,000 candidates from 70 countries. We are so proud of what we have been able to accomplish together with you and our partner communities and are glad that more people are starting to take notice.

Garrison and Crystal represented Andando at the .ORG Impact Awards held in Washington DC. Andando was a finalize out of over 1,000 nonprofits from 70 different countries!

Thank you again for all you have done to support the people of Senegal and we can’t wait to make an even bigger impact in 2024!

Sustainability is NOT Just a Buzzword

Countless projects across the development sphere have well thought out plans on paper, but they aren’t able to stand the test of time. Andando does things differently in many ways, but we are not immune to one of the fundamental principles of development work: we are fulfilling needs which are beyond the means of our partner communities. So how does a community sustain a project over the long-term which they could not afford to do on their own?

Mboyo Walo Garden celebrating reaching their savings goal.

Unlike schools and health posts, Andando’s gardens have no government support to keep them going, instead they rely on savings from sales to cover future costs. This system has worked well for over a decade, but we noticed after the pandemic that garden savings started declining and were no longer sufficient to cover the larger infrastructure elements, like a solar pump.

Nguendar village leader explaining the new cost-sharing agreement to the other garden members.

Nothing about us without us.

This concept is paramount to our approach, and it was only through discussions with our garden partners that we found the cause of the problem and identified a path forward.

Nguendar garden leaders posing for a picture after signing the new 50/50 cost sharing agreement.

There were actually a myriad of contributing factors, from difficulties with the current bank, to rising seeds costs, to a general lack of understanding about maintenance and the costs involved. Together we helped the gardens change to a different more accessible bank, established our seed production program to reduce costs, and hired a new maintenance technician to help repair infrastructure and train the women in basic preventative maintenance.

Maintenance Technician Hamath repairing a solar pump controller. This new staff position supports garden participants in long-term care of garden infrastructure.

In addition to these improvements, we also agreed to sign a 50/50 cost-sharing agreement for future repairs with any garden that achieves at least 1,000,000 CFA (about $1,700) in savings. So far five gardens have exceeded this goal with many more well on their way!

Mbantou Croissement, Andando’s first garden in Podor, was the first to sign our new 50/50 cost-sharing agreement.

We congratulate these women on their amazing accomplishment and are proud to meet them as equal partners in the long-term sustainability of their gardens for years to come.

Meet Babacar, Garden Technician

Continuing in our series, we would like to introduce you to another member of our team who works on the ground in Senegal every day to build resilient, thriving communities. We think they are pretty amazing and are sure you will agree. This is part of a series introducing the people that make it all possible. (Click here to see others in this series.) Meet Babacar, Garden Technician

Babacar joined the Andando team in 2018 and has helped establish three gardens.

Babacar Sow joined our team in 2018. He is the second oldest of five, with an older sister and three younger brothers. Babacar grew up in Khelcom Biram, a small village close to Keur Soce. He attended elementary and middle school in his hometown and continued on to high school at Ibrahima Diouf High School in Kaolack (a 30 min. drive from Keur Soce).

Babacar (left) with friends and colleagues during his agriculture training.

Having grown up working on his parents farm, Babacar possessed a natural gift for agriculture and was selected to join a specialty agriculture training center to further develop his skills. The program also focused on developing leadership skills, facilitating partnerships, computer literacy, and financial management. At the completion of his training, the National Agency for the Promotion and Employment of Youth put him in contact with Andando, and we asked him to join our team in 2018.

Babacar and Fatou at their wedding, May 2022.

In 2022 Babacar married Fatou, one of his childhood friends, and they welcomed their first child, Ibrahima (named after Babacar’s father) in March of last year. As is customary, they live together on a family plot in his home village of Khelcom Biran.

Fatou, Ibrahima, and Babacar in traditional dress as they attend a local celebration.

A dedicated father and brother, Babacar spends much of his free time with his family discussing goals and life plans for the future, as well as enjoying nature documentaries and listening to music-- Alfa Blondie is his favorite musician. He also enjoys spending time in nature, especially visiting the forest and the beach.

“Nature nourishes my soul. When I am in nature I feel happiness. I really like the color green which nourishes me and pushes me to go towards the forest and nature. I enjoy discovering the savanna, trees, and animals because I am a pure villager.”

— Babacar

Your support enables Babacar to help his fellow citizens. Thank you for investing in their future!

Click here to meet other staff.

Public Interest Registry Names Andando as 2023 .ORG Impact Awards Finalists, Padma Lakshmi to Host

Public Interest Registry (PIR), the people behind .ORG, named the finalists for the 5th annual .ORG Impact Awards and announced that Padma Lakshmi—activist, author, and host/producer of Hulu’s Taste the Nation—will host the awards ceremony where the winners will be revealed on November 16 in Washington, D.C. The program recognizes and rewards outstanding mission-driven individuals and organizations from around the world for their positive contributions to society.

Andando is named as a finalist in the Community Building category for their outstanding work in Senegal aiding rural communities to break intergenerational cycles of poverty and create lasting positive change especially for women and girls. This is the first time that Andando’s achievements are being recognized at the global level which is both an honor and a great opportunity for a larger audience to engage with their work.

Andando’s women’s gardens, health posts, schools, and microloans work together to help communities to lift themselves out of poverty.

Andando’s holistic, community centered approach to poverty reduction has affected over 50,000 people in some of the most remote and underserved villages in Senegal.  Partnerships last a minimum of 5 years and can include interventions in food security, healthcare, school infrastructure and microfinance, all depending on the needs and desires of each community. To date Andando has constructed and supports 40 women’s cooperative gardens, 65 classrooms, 45 latrines and has distributed over 2,000 microloans.

“We are honored to welcome our 2023 .ORG Impact Award Finalists into our growing community of changemakers, who inspire us to make the world a better place. We created the awards to celebrate those within the .ORG Community who work tirelessly to uplift their communities—and this year’s finalists represent hope for a brighter future” said Jon Nevett, President, and CEO of Public Interest Registry.

From food justice to health advocacy, Lakshmi is a passionate and outspoken advocate in the mission-driven community

“We also are thrilled to have Padma Lakshmi join us to celebrate the immense impact of the OIA finalists, winners, and .ORG community at our awards ceremony. A changemaker herself with an inspiring advocacy background, Padma will bring new energy and celebration to this year’s awards.”

Andando’s Executive Director Garrison Harward along with Development Director Crystal Kelley will travel to the .ORG Impact Awards celebration where the winners will be announced. 35 finalists, out of nearly 1,000 candidates, will attend the ceremony where the .ORG of the year winner will receive a donation of $50,000 with the other category winners each receiving $10,000.  

“It’s an honor to be a finalist for such a prestigious global award. If we are lucky enough to win our category or even .ORG of the Year 100% of the funds will go directly into life changing projects for a new rural community in Senegal. Beyond that though we hope that more people will see what we are doing and want to get involved. The impacts we’re achieving are truly incredible.”

- Garrison Harward, Executive Director

Public Interest Registry (PIR) is a nonprofit that operates the .ORG top-level domain—one of the world’s largest generic top-level domains with more than 10.8 million domain names registered worldwide. .ORG is open to everyone, providing a global platform for organizations, associations, clubs, businesses and individuals to bring their ideas to life. PIR has been a champion for a free and open Internet for two decades with a clear mission to be an exemplary domain name registry, provide a trusted digital identity and help educate those who dedicate themselves to improving our world. PIR was founded by the Internet Society (internetsociety.org) in 2002 and is based in Reston, Virginia, USA. Visit www.TheNew.org for more information.

From the Director - October 2023

·       A potential new partner school in the neighboring commune of Ndiedieng, next to Keur Soce.

40 gardens, 14 health posts, 65 classrooms, 45 latrines, and over 2,000 microloans to date.  These numbers are impressive but what is the real limit of what we can do together?  How many more people can we reach?  How can we grow without losing the personal touch and care that has made Andando so uniquely successful?  What is next for Andando? These are questions that I ask myself constantly and with the completion of our 40th garden this feels like an important moment to step back, take stock, and share our vision for the future.  

Some of the amazing Podor team standing in front of our newly completed tree nursery, which will drastically increase the rate at which we can build new gardens.

It is nothing short of miraculous what Andando has been able to achieve over the past 15 years, but there is still so much more work to do. We’ve been in the incubator together, so to speak, building a community of supporters and developing our methods and partnerships.  What we do works, and we have a moral imperative now to reach as many communities in need as we can.

The incredible Keur Soce team after a strategic planning training this past August.

To this end we are investing in our local staff, who have always been key to our success, building their capacity and giving them the tools and training to tackle larger projects in the future.  We are working with regional government leaders to assess our current impacts and develop long-term plans to address the remaining needs in Keur Soce and Podor. And we are looking for Andando’s next region, or regions, to expand into, where our unique and dedicated approach can impact even more remote and neglected communities.  

Podor Tree Program Manager Alassane Ba (Gorgui), taking our new office computer for a test drive.

We are poised and ready to expand and there has never been a better, or a more needed time to support Andando.  Whether through the auction, monthly contributions, volunteering, or spreading the word, your support is not just another drop in the bucket, it directly impacts what we do every day and how big our vision for the future can be.

“Jéréjëf!” – Thank You!

- Garrison Harward, Executive Director

Meet Maguette, Garden Technician

Continuing in our series, we would like to introduce you to another member of our team who works on the ground in Senegal every day to build resilient, thriving communities. We think they are pretty amazing and are sure you will agree. This is the 14th in a series introducing the people that make it all possible. (Click here to see others in this series.) Meet Maguette, Garden Technician

Maguette joined the Andando team in 2018.

Maguette Marone joined our team in 2018. She is the second youngest in her family with five older sisters, one older brother, and one younger brother.  She grew up in Keur Soce and remembers when Andando first started working in the area.

“We can say that Andando was founded in front of me.”

— Maguette

A vital member of our team, Maguette brings a unique perspective and talent to both the Podor team (pictured here) and the Keur Soce team.

Maguette’s early education career was in one of Andando’s first partner schools.  She has fond memories of playing renga boulu* with her friends on the school grounds.  Maguette would often help her mother, Dibi, in her shop after school.  Dibi was one of the first entrepreneurs to build a business using an Andando microloan!

Maguette clearing brush at the Andando training center garden area in Keur Soce.

After completing school Maguette joined our team in Keur Soce as a Garden Technician.  With a passion for health and also watching her mother build a successful business she brings a unique perspective and talent to the team.

“My role is to guide women and show them how they can earn without using a lot of money.””

— Maguette

Using her life experience, Maguette helps women develop their own agriculture and entrepreneurial skills for success.

In July of 2020 Maguette married Ibrahim and they live in Keur Soce.  When she is not working Maguette enjoys watching movies and has a passion for health and wellness. 

Celebrating her marriage, Maguette (second from right) with two of her sisters and her little brother at her wedding in July 2020.

Your support enables Maguette to help her fellow citizens. Thank you for investing in their future!

Click here to meet other staff.

Celebrating Andando's 40th Garden!

·Women from the Wouro Kelle gather under the shade of the single tree in plot to dance and celebrate the start of the garden. Even out here smart phones are at the ready to record the festivities.

The village of Wouro Kelle in Podor is located in the vast flood plain of the Senegal River, known locally as the Walo. With rich soils and abundant water this land is ideal for rice cultivation, but unfortunately the same yearly floods that the village relies on for farming also causes it to be isolated for much of the year.  A little more than 700 people live here with the closest market town being about 10 miles away. Though the people of Wouro Kelle work hard to provide for their families, circumstances are stacked against them and there is simply not enough access to fresh fruits and vegetables to provide adequate nutrition, especially for young children.

This barren plot will soon be a lush permaculture garden providing a permanent source of nutrition and income for the whole village.

Photos show the barren roads leading to Wouro Kelle, scouting the site with local officials, and the village preparing the land for the installation of the garden.

Gardening is not new to the village, but it is seasonal.  As flood waters recede the heavy clay soil holds enough water to grow a single crop of sweet potatoes and pumpkins on the banks of the river before the hot season arrives and dries out the land.  Without access to irrigation or fences to keep out free-range livestock it’s nearly impossible to continue gardening activities year-round.  This is where Andando comes in. After months of meetings, planning, and construction Wouro Kelle is now joining Andando as our 40th women’s garden! Garden President Fatimata Sekk had this to say to our generous donors:

“We thank the lord we thank everyone who helped to create this condition. Where you come from is far, if you were not determined you would not reach here. We have wanted to have a garden for a long, long time… Now we are so determined to have it succeed. Everyone let’s stand up and lets work… We pray for our garden to be among the best in this area. We are so happy, there is no limit for our happiness.”

— Fatimata Sekk, Wouro Kelle Garden President

Garden President Fatimata Sekk verifies that all infrastructure is completed and functioning properly.  This garden draws water from the river, which turns brown with silt after it rains.

We are so happy as well to be partnering with such a deserving community and look forward to seeing the transformations that their work will bring to their families and community in the coming years.

With the fence, basins, and solar pump system complete the women of Wouro Kelle are ready to start their first ever dry season gardening campaign.

Update from the Field

I have just returned from Senegal and there is far too much good news to wait for the next newsletter!  We were fortunate to have good weather during the trip, not a guarantee in the rainy season, so we were able to see most of the new projects that we’re working on and how they’re coming together.  This is just a quick overview so stay tuned for more in-depth information soon on all of these amazing projects!

Garrison and Gorgui standing with our new deep borehole well in the desert.

In the Keur Soce area work is nearly complete on our first ever school garden at Keur Soce High School.  The fence, basins, and storehouse are done, leaving only the water connection to our nearby Thiako garden whose members are generously contributing their water to the school.  We are so excited that this will be the first high school in all of Senegal with an integrated aquaculture training program!  Work should be completed here by the end of the month, and we will share more pictures when classes start in October and garden activities begin.

The completed garden storehouse stands in front of the beautiful Keur Soce High School classrooms.

A fish basin inside Keur Soce High School Garden with Mandaw, Garden Program Manager.

Watering basins will be connected to the aquaculture system so that nutrient rich fish water can be used to water crops in the garden.

Renovations begin at Mbadhiou Peulh Primary School.

Also in Keur Soce we got to see the beginning of renovations of three classrooms at Mbadhiou Peulh Primary School.  The local municipal government is constructing two new classrooms here this year but didn’t have the means to upgrade the existing classroom building which has a leaking roof and cracked walls. So at the request of the village Andando stepped in to renovate the current classrooms so that all students will have a safe and proper learning environment for years to come.  We will also be adding a new block of latrines hare as well this fall!

Students from Mbadhiou Peulh Primary School in one of the classrooms that is now being renovated.

Adjacent to the existing classrooms is a temporary classroom where some students have to study in difficult conditions.

Due to the collaboration between the community and Andando all students will now study in proper safe and secure classrooms.

Madame Sekk, the head nurse of the regional hospital, facilitates a community meetings in the village of Bida in preparation to start construction on a new health post there.

In Podor we finished the selection process for our next health post which will be built in the rural community of Bida.  This village is dedicated to community health with several healthcare workers already operating a seasonal clinic here out of temporary structures which must be rebuilt each year.  We are proud to be working with such dedicated partners and can’t wait to see the impact that a proper health post will have on their ability to care for their community. We will share more about the incredible story of this village when we start construction here in November.

A boy from Togane stands with the papaya tree he helped plant this spring.

We are also nearly finished with construction on our new tree nursery and agroforestry center in Podor.  Our borehole well drilling was a complete success, and we now have a high output water source with a solar well pump system which will enable us to produce a minimum of 50,000 beneficial native trees here each year.  With these tree we will be able to speed up the implementation of new gardens and provide trees to all of our schools, health posts, and partner communities to bolster their food security, improve quality of life, and help them to restore the ecology of their lands. 

Photo Descriptions: 1) Clean fresh water flows from our new well in the Podor Tree Nursery. 2) Fruit tree seedlings in the Keur Soce Tree Nursery, which has started over 15,000 trees this year! 3) Podor Tree Nursery complete with basins, storehouse, water reservoir, solar panels, and restrooms. 4) A woman from Togane stands proudly with her Moringa trees. This is the first time that this village has ever had access to this miraculous and nutritious tree.

The children of Wouro Kelle verifying the water system. This garden draws water from the local river which turns brown from runoff during the rainy season.

Last but certainly not least we visited the community of Wouro Kelle to see the completion of Andando’s 40th garden!!  We are privileged to have this dedicated and deserving community join Andando at such a wonderful milestone and we can’t wait to share their story with you. Stay tuned for the next newsletter where we will profile Wouro Kelle and tell you more about the impact that this garden will have there. We would never have gotten to this point, or be able to reach such remote villages as this, without the steadfast support of our dedicated community of donors and volunteers over the past 15 years. Our hats off to you!

The women of Wourou Kelle celebrate the completion of their new garden.

It’s hard to believe but it’s already “Auction Season” for Andando, and if any of these projects resonated with you, please consider contributing in some way to help make the auction a success! We always have many more projects up for consideration than we can accomplish each year, and the success of the auction is the deciding factor on much of our yearly programing.  Whether you can help by volunteering, donating auction items, spreading the word to new potential donors, or attending and bidding on some of our amazing auction items, we appreciate your support so that we can continue this vital work in Senegal. 

Please consider contributing through our annual auction fundraiser. Whether you can help by volunteering, donating auction items, spreading the word to new potential donors, or attending and bidding on some of our amazing auction items, we appreciate your support so that we can continue this vital work in Senegal.  More info at www.andando.org/events.

Seno Bowal Health Post is Open for Business!

Women from the village of Seno Bowal celebrating the grand opening of the health post.

Seno Bowal is open for business! This past May we had the immense pleasure of witnessing the inauguration of our Seno Bowal health post, Andando’s 14th overall. 

Seno Bowal is a remote village in the northern region of Senegal. Accessible only by driving off the highway and then 8 miles into the desert on sand paths, the remoteness of this community really comes into focus.

Driving off the highway and then 20 kilometers (8 miles) into the desert on sand paths, the remoteness of this community really comes into focus.  We actually ended up passing the village because the paths had changed since our last visit, showing just how tenuous and unpredictable travel in this environment can be. 

We eventually found our way and when we arrived were greeted by a beautiful site, a crowd of cheering women in front of a gorgeous new health post: the bright sturdy structure seeming to stand proudly in stark contrast to the cracked and dilapidated hut that it replaced.  

Mane Fall, a mother and member of the village, shared with us the reality and risk of giving birth before the health post was completed.

The women of the village rolled out brightly colored mats and started playing traditional drums and soon the spontaneous dance party began.  The joy of this moment was palpable as the women laughed and sang, continually trying to one-up each other’s dance moves. 

During the planning and construction process for this health post we heard countless testimonials of the difficulties women in Seno Bowal and the surrounding villages face when seeking healthcare.  They opened up to us saying how hard it is to travel by donkey cart to the local hospital while in labor, or about giving birth in the dark without any electricity or running water, and even about the loved ones who they had lost because they weren’t able to get the care that they needed.  The exuberance of this moment seems to be joyful manifestation of relief, that hopefully life will be just a little bit easier from now on.  

The new health post includes clean running water. Something so vital that we easily take for granted.

After the initial celebration died down, we were treated to a tour of the new health post.  We saw the consultation room, the private delivery and recovery rooms, and got to wash our hands with clean running water; something so vital that we easily take for granted.

Sitting down with the community to hear how they are already using the post for community health outreach and primary care.

We then sat down for a meeting with the community where they told us how they are already using the post for community health outreach activities and primary care treatments.  It speaks volumes to this community’s dedication and enthusiasm that as soon as the paint was dry, they opened the doors and started seeing patients. In fact the first healthy baby was born here just a few weeks after our visit!

The Andando team standing out side the completed Seno Bowal Health Post with the head nurse.

We congratulate the entire community and everyone who helped us to make this possible. Here's to a healthier, happier Seno Bowal! As we move forward, Andando will continue to work with the community to ensure the sustainability of this health post. We’ll help train the staff and organize community health programs. We remain committed to improving access to quality healthcare for the people of Seno Bowal and other similar communities. This may be our 14th health post, but each one has its own unique story, and we are excited to share more stories of other communities in need as we continue to expand our rural healthcare initiatives.  

Volunteers Needed!

We are gearing up for a fabulous auction in October and we need your help to make it the best EVER! Whether you want to volunteer remotely, or in person, a lot or a little, we need you.

How can I help?

• Contact businesses to secure auction items

• Sign up to bake something for the infamous Dessert Dash!! (We are also seeking someone to help coordinate all the bakers)

• Day-of set up & clean up

• Day-of guest check-in

• Help bring people to the Auction by serving as table host

• And more (If you have a skill that we don’t know about let us know!)

For more information or to sign up to volunteer contact Crystal:

Crystal@andando.org
(541) 224-7990 (call or text)

From the Director - July 2023

We are on a roll! It feels appropriate that with the lush growth of another rainy season, so many projects are coming to fruition for Andando. 

The inauguration of Seno Bowal Health Post, Andando’s 14th overall.

Our Seno Bowal health post, Andando’s 14th overall, was officially inaugurated on May 10th, and the first baby was born there less than a month later! This post was entirely funded by generous donations from Hub City Church, and we are so proud to be partnering with them to create life saving access to maternal healthcare in rural communities. 

Midwives and nurses standing outside the newly renovated health post in Thiemene Taba.

We are thrilled to report that the repairs of our first health post, Thiamene Taba, are complete as well! Altrusa International of Albany helped us to realize this rapid response to the damage that occurred here during the last rainy season, ensuring that this post will continue to serve the area for years to come.

Drilling the borehole in Podor for the new native tree nursery.

In Podor we successfully drilled our first borehole well in the desert last month, which is a crucial milestone towards building our new native tree nursery and agroforestry center.  This location will soon produce 50,000 beneficial trees each year thanks to a grant from Rick Steve’s Europe!

Workers frame up the rebar for the concrete aquaculture basin in the Keur Soce High School STEM garden. Construction is nearly complete on our first-ever school garden at Keur Soce High School, which will be the first high school in all of Senegal with an integrated aquaculture training program.

Back in Keur Soce work is nearly finished on our first ever school garden at Andando’s Keur Soce High School, which will be the first high school in all of Senegal with an integrated aquaculture training program.  We are still seeking funding to hopefully build a laboratory, classroom, library, and computer lab to continue to support this amazing school.

Breaking ground at Andando’s 40th(!!) garden located in the extremely isolated community of Wouro Kelle.

And last but not least, in the community of Wouro Kelle we just broke ground on Andando’s 40th garden!  Wow!! We never could have gotten to this point without the generous support of so many amazing people who partner with us year after year to help the people of Senegal. On behalf of all of our staff and partner communities,

Meet Yaya, Garden Technician & Fish Program Manager

Continuing in our series, we would like to introduce you to another member of our team who works on the ground in Senegal every day to build resilient, thriving communities. We think they are pretty amazing and are sure you will agree. This is the 13th in a series introducing the people that make it all possible. (Click here to see others in this series.) Meet Yaya, Garden Technician & Fish Program Manager

Yaya joined the Andando team in 2019.

Yaya Sow joined our team in 2019. He is the youngest in his family with seven older brothers and sisters.  He grew up in Tiguere Cire in the norther region of Senegal (about four hours southeast of Andando’s Podor headquarters).

Yaya attended elementary and middle school in his home town.  To attend high school he moved in with his uncle’s family in Matam, a larger nearby town. A good student, he went on to University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography.  He went on to attend ISAE (Institute of Agriculture, Biology, and Ecology), an exclusive school that only accepts 29 students each year.

Yaya studying at University Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Geography.

With a vast field of opportunities before him, Yaya chose to participate in a 3-month training with Andando.  At the completion of this training he stayed on as a Garden Technician.

“I’m not somebody who is changing a lot, when I find something I like to stay there. I am determined. If I work on something, I work on it until it’s finished. ”

— Yaya

After graduating from university Yaya joined Andando as an intern and completed a 3-month training in Keur Soce.

Currently Yaya manages two gardens and recently took on the additional responsibility of overseeing our Aquaponics Program, which has produced over 500 pounds of fish so far.

A successful fish harvest at the Lamarame Garden. Yaya has helped the four pilot program gardens raise and harvest over 500 pounds of fish so far!

Managing the fish in the four (soon to be five) gardens takes a different set of skills and is a  unique challenge.  “Sometimes it’s nice, sometimes it’s difficult. For the fish, sometimes it gives you stress because it’s something alive that you have to observe.  It was not a part of my training so it’s a plus,” says Yaya. 

Yaya works closely with garden participants to ensure the fish get the appropriate food to maximize their growth while also keeping costs low.

When he is not working Yaya enjoys playing futbol (soccer).  He also enjoys hanging out with this friends and visiting villages where he previously worked.  Because our technicians live in the villages where they work, they build lasting relationships that not only benefit them socially, but also keeps Andando connected to these communities helping ensure their long-term success.

Your support enables Yaya to help his fellow citizens. Thank you for investing in their future!

Click here to meet other staff.

MICRO Loan, BIG Impact!

A farmer and his son seeding their peanut field with the use of a horse and a pull-behind seeding machine.

We often call Andando’s method the Whole Village approach, and that’s because the problems our partner communities face are multi-faceted, making it incredibly difficult to solve one need without addressing many others along the way.  Our microloan program is one of our oldest and is an integral component of this approach, ensuring that once each community has access to nutrition, education, and healthcare, they also have access to resources for sustained economic growth.

One of our microloan recipients, Tidiane Sakho, with his family outside their home. They used the proceeds from their harvest to make improvements on their home as well as increase their food security.

It’s hard to fully explain the difficulties that Senegalese families face in rural villages.  Like families anywhere, they need to put food on the table, pay for clothes, buy school supplies, and cover other household needs.  But in rural areas, access to consistent income, banking, and credit is rare.  Most families rely on farming for their food security and yearly income, and the months leading up to the rainy season can be very lean times. 

Many farmers supplement their income by growing peanuts, a cash crop in Senegal. Using their loans to diversify their crops gives farmers more options and security when it is time to harvest.

This is precisely the time when farmers need to make their largest investments (equipment, seeds, and fertilizer) but for many the money from last year’s harvest has run out.  Predatory lenders with high interest rates fill the need for loans, but at an extreme cost to farmers’ profits, all but ensuring that the next harvest won’t sustain the family for the full year.

This year we were able to DOUBLE the number of loans bringing our total to 200! This picture is of just some of the microloan recipients.

Our microloan program eases this burden by providing small zero-percent interest loans ahead of the rainy season so that farmers can purchase what they need to start their crops on time and maximize their yields and profits.

“This loan allowed me to buy a variety of seeds and fertilizer.  After harvest I bought cement to start adding on to our home.
”

— Tidiane Sahko, Loan Recipient

This program has been running successfully for over a decade with a better than 99% repayment rate, and this year thanks to the generosity of our donors we DOUBLED the number of loans distributed to 200! We are so excited to see the impact this will have, and we hope to reach even more farmers next year.

See more about our microloan program.

Back Up and Running: Thiamene Taba Health Post Repairs are Complete!

Health care workers outside the newly repaired Thiamene Taba Health Post

We are thrilled to share that our repairs on Andando’s oldest health post, Thiamene Taba, are complete!   This post has been a vital community health resource for over a decade providing a safe environment for births, along with access to primary care for numerous day-to-day health needs.  (Click here to see the previous blog post on Thiamene Taba.)

Thiamene Taba Health Post: BEFORE & AFTER

The dedicated staff here hold monthly programs to screen for malnutrition, provide vaccinations, and ensure that all children in the area are healthy and developing properly.  When the COVID19 pandemic broke out they lead the charge to educate their community about the situation and were even able to advocate to have vaccines administered from this post to keep their village safe.  

During Covid-19, health care workers were essential in keeping communities safe through education and instruction on proper hand washing techniques.

In 2022 alone Thiamene Taba saw over 2,500 patients including 39 healthy births.  The incredible community health workers here did all of this as unpaid volunteers, relying only on small donations from surrounding villages to support their work. We are incredibly proud of their dedication to the health and well-being of their community, and when we got the call that Thiamene Taba needed a new roof after one of the harshest rainy seasons in decades, we knew we had to find a way to keep this essential community health resource thriving.

Andando is lucky to have amazing partners both in Senegal and back in the United States.  Altrusa International of Albany has been a long-time supporter of our work so when we got the call, we reached out to them to see if they would be willing to sponsor the repairs.   They enthusiastically agreed and because of Altrusa’s support we were able not only to replace the roof with a brand-new sturdier steel beam supported metal sheeting, but we also patched and painted the entire structure, updated old plumbing, and hooked up the post to the electrical grid which just recently arrived in the village.   

The transformation is incredible.  Here is what Fatou Thiam, the head midwife of Thiamene Taba, had to say about the project:

Fatou Thiam, midwife at Thiamene Taba Health Post, pictured outside the building during repairs (April 2023).

“Before the repairs when it rained no one could give birth here because water was leaking in everywhere and everything was wet. We couldn’t work in those conditions. Women would have to go far to Keur Soce to give birth and sometimes they didn’t make it in time and would deliver on the road on the way there.  This health post is very important for the community, and we thank God it is in a good condition now.”

Because of our ongoing commitment and connection to communities after a project is complete we learned about the need as soon as it occurred. This mutual trust and communication is what makes long-term project success possible.

This success story is only possible due to Andando’s continued connection with our partner communities and the continued support of our donors and partner organizations.  We learned about the need as soon as it occurred, were able to find support within just a few short months, and then completed a total renovation well in advance of the next rainy season.  This kind of direct project monitoring and rapid response to problems is rare in the development field and it’s a testament to the dedication of Andando’s partner communities, in country staff, and generous donors. This was a huge success for everyone involved and will have a positive impact on Thiamene Taba and the surrounding communities for generations to come. Bravo!