From Barren to Bountiful in Just 6 Months!

Women from Haffé used to travel long distances to purchase vegetables to resell in their village.

Haffé is a small, remote village in Senegal’s Kaolack region, right in the heart of the “peanut basin.” For decades, peanuts have been the main cash crop here, but the relentless monocropping has left behind deforestation, depleted soils, and widespread poverty. It’s a tough place to start, but these are exactly the kinds of challenges where Andando’s community-led women’s permaculture gardens shine!

Back in February, over 200 women from Haffé planted their very first seedlings in their new four-acre Andando garden. For years they had tried to create a garden on their own, but without fencing or a solar pump system, the dream always slipped out of reach. The moment those barriers fell, it was as if the floodgates opened. Years of determination and vision burst forth, and the women dove in with extraordinary energy and ambition.

The garden site, originally a peanut field, had severely degraded soil and minimal tree cover.

The same field, just a few months later, is bursting with life and already beginning to heal.

And the results? Nothing short of incredible. By April, they were already harvesting lettuce and turnips. In May, they planted every single tree needed to create the full permaculture design (nearly 1,000 in total), building soil, protecting the land, and setting up the garden for long-term success. June brought green peppers, followed by tomatoes, eggplants, and hot peppers. Month after month, the harvests just kept coming.

By the end of July, this unstoppable group had harvested over 18,000 pounds of fresh organic produce and earned more than $8,600 in profits. Wow! Families now have vegetables on the table at every meal, women can pay school fees and buy medicine, and the village has the resources to overcome malnutrition.

We are so proud of these women. In just six months, they transformed barren land into a thriving, regenerative garden. And we’re proud of our staff too, who have refined garden establishment into such a science that we almost expect this kind of success now. Almost. It’s still thrilling every single time, and it makes us that much more excited to partner with the next community ready to take off.

Andando’s next women’s garden will take root in Senobowal, a village in northern Senegal on the edge of the Sahara Desert. Transforming this dry land into a thriving garden won’t be easy, but our team is ready for the challenge!

Watch the video below to see the progress that has already been made by getting water to families in Senobowal, and the next steps on the Women’s Garden that will feed the community.

Help us fund the garden construction my making a donation today, or signing up to be a monthly donor!

The Rains Are Here, and So Are the Trees!

Across Senegal, the first rains have arrived, and with them, the country bursts into green. For our partner communities, this marks one of the most important times of the year, a short but critical window when farmers work hard to grow the food that will sustain their families through the dry season. This is also a moment of intense work and opportunity for one of our most powerful tools in the fight against poverty and climate change: tree planting.

A member of the Haffé women’s garden plants two citrus trees in her plot, helping to establish the food forest structure.

At the request of our partners, Andando has been steadily increasing tree production at our two regional nurseries over the past three years. The goal is twofold: to meet our partners’ growing demand for trees and to support the scale-up of programs like our women’s gardens. Take our newest garden in Haffé, for example. Normally it takes a garden several years to complete their tree plan, but thanks to reliable in-house tree production, they were already able to plant nearly 1,000 trees in just their first three months!

The women of Sama Toucouleur received trees to bolster and repair their live fence.

Our team has worked tirelessly to produce over 40,000 trees so far this year. And even though the planting season has only just begun, they’ve worked with our partners to get more than 7,000 in the ground already! Few things are more hopeful than opening our Andando WhatsApp threads and seeing photo after photo of newly planted trees. The season is bursting with life.

Three Years of Impact and Counting!

The successes we’re seeing this year are the result of years of diligent effort and consistent support from our donors and partners like Rick Steves’ Climate Smart Commitment, who have contributed $130,000 over the past three years. This support has been instrumental in getting us to where we are today.

Andando’s Podor tree nursery established in 2023 now produces over 25,000 trees annually, which are provided free of charge to local residents.

In 2023, this partnership helped us lay critical groundwork in the north. We established a fully equipped tree nursery in Podor, complete with a deep borehole well and a solar-powered water system, providing the infrastructure needed to support large-scale, climate-resilient reforestation in this harsh landscape on the edge of the Sahara Desert. We also conducted a full census of our existing trees across partner gardens, confirming the successful establishment of 27,646 trees to date.

A member of the Togane women’s garden waters newly planted native Acacia Mellifera trees.

In 2024, we expanded that foundation significantly. A total of 26,530 new trees were planted across women’s gardens, schools, farms, and clinics in both Podor and Keur Soce. In Keur Soce, we upgraded the tree nursery water system to increase capacity for year-round tree production and we also took part in Senegal’s National Tree Day, contributing trees, labor, and logistical support to help advance national reforestation efforts.

Now in 2025, our focus is on scale, sustainability, and expansion through NEW partnerships. Steady production in our regional nurseries is supporting a second garden this year in Senobowal, which put together with Haffé will provide more than 400 women and their families with reliable access to nutrition and income. A new Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) training initiative is equipping 200 farmers in Keur Soce to regenerate and steward their own land. And in both Podor and Keur Soce, we’re supporting community-led efforts to establish local nurseries, giving partner communities the tools and training to lead reforestation efforts themselves.

Our newly completed borehole well and solar pump system in Senobowal opens up a whole new world of possibilities for tree planting in the region.

Thanks to a new partnership with the G20 Global Land Initiative, we’re also expanding reforestation efforts into the Dieri, the arid, pastoral lands of northern Senegal. If ever there was a front line of climate change, this is it. Starting with our dedicated partners in Senobowal, we hope to support remote communities across the region to reforest their lands and contribute to the Great Green Wall, helping to stop and reverse the spread of the Sahara Desert. We’re also now a newly recognized Environmental Partner of 1% for the Planet, which we’re hopeful will open the door to a broader community of potential supporters.

We’ve built a lot over the past three years, and we’re excited about what the future holds as Andando continues expanding its work. But for today, it’s time to stop talking about what’s next, and plant the rest of those 40,000 trees while the rains are still here!

In just over a year, the women of Wouro Kelle have built a thriving food forest, planting nearly 1,000 trees and harvesting over 20,000 lbs. of produce in one of Senegal’s harshest climates. This is an incredible example of what is possible through Andando’s women’s garden program.

From the Director - February 2025

People often ask us about Andando’s “magic formula”—how do we continue to succeed where so many development projects struggle? I wish I could say it’s pure talent, but in truth, more often it’s diligence. We are constantly listening, learning, and adapting.

The new aquaculture fish farming basins are complete in our Mboyo Walo partner garden. The women here are quickly mastering this difficult new skill.

Take our women’s gardens, for example. To ensure their long-term sustainability, we’ve recently focused on improving financial literacy and savings. Last year alone, these gardens collectively added nearly $8,500 to their savings accounts, bringing the total balance to an impressive $41,000. And that’s on top of individual profits! The addition of fish farming has helped contribute to these results, and we’re thrilled to report that our two newest aquaculture pilot gardens are thriving, with their first harvest just a few months away!

The new pharmacist at the Paymar rural health clinic proudly displaying their full stock of medications and supplies, ready to serve members of their community.

Another example of diligence is our partner health clinic in Paymar, where the community has pooled resources to hire a new nurse and pharmacist to expand services; however, their efforts are hindered by a damaged roof. By continuing to monitor past projects and listen to partners, we can now help to resolve this issue with a new roof and possible expansion of the facility as well.

The leaders of the Haffé women’s garden sitting on the newly constructed watering basin. Soon they will transform this degraded landscape into a verdant oasis to support their families.

Lastly, I’d like to introduce you to our newest garden partners in the village of Haffé, near Keur Socé. This community has faced immense challenges establishing their garden, from flooding that delayed the project to a well that partially collapsed right when production was set to begin. However, through close collaboration with the women, village leaders, and local government, we were able to assist them in overcoming each hurdle, leaving the group of 220 women more determined and empowered than ever to start their garden.

Your diligent support of Andando allows us to continue to do this work the right way and create lasting change.