Update on our work in Senegal

These women in the Dahra Epicenter manage the milk processing center.

The women have also set up all of the activities to create a “virtuous cycle” in which the livestock raisers come to the Epicenter to sell their milk to the milk processing center then buy livestock feed.  The livestock feed operation has its own bank account in the rural bank, so profit gained from sales is deposited as savings there.  Part of this savings is used by the rural bank to provide credit to the women for their economic activities.  In this way, all of the activities in the Epicenter are mutually reinforcing and create an even greater positive impact on people’s livelihoods.

The women are also looking for creative ways to increase their activities and to address obstacles.  For example, during the months of June to August, many livestock herders leave the area to graze their herds in greener pastures.  This is an age-old survival strategy among herders to allow the pastures to re-grow from season to season.  However, it does pose a seasonal supply problem to the women’s milk processing center.  So, instead of accepting “fate,” they have been actively looking for ways to create access to milk all year round, and found out that there is a national program that provides special highly productive milk cows.  And there is a special national fund to help people get access to credit for these cows as they are relatively expensive.  So, as of our visit, the women had gone through an extensive review by the officials of these programs and are hoping to be approved for a line of credit that would operate through the women’s rural bank to give loans to women’s groups to purchase the special dairy cows which will produce milk all year round.  This effort shows the dynamism and creativity of the women of the Dahra Epicenter. 

AWFFI has been active in Dahra since 1999, and the rural bank already has the first level of government recognition and expects to get the second level soon.  The total amount of credit disbursed to women through the rural bank since 1999 is now over $181,000, and the total amount of savings is currently over $32,000.  Over 121 Women’s Groups, with an average of 50 members each, have already joined the rural bank, as well as 214 Individual members, and 23 “Auxiliary Individual Members,” which is the technical term for male members.

Women attending the meeting at the Dahra Epicenter.

During our discussions, the women shared with us the activities they had undertaken with the AWFFI credit from the rural bank.   One woman explained that before she had access to credit, she only had 1 or 2 sheep at any given time.   She took credit with her Women’s Group of 50 women; and with a $500 loan, they bought 17 sheep.  After fattening these for several months and selling them, they repaid their credit in full, and then used part of the profit to buy large cooking pots and serving bowls that the group rents out to families for ceremonies like weddings, baptisms and funerals.  Later, they bought chairs that they can also rent out for events in the villages.

Another group of 50 women has participated in 5 loan cycles.  Their activities ranged from growing peanuts to raising cattle.  Then recently, the group was able to use part of their profits to contribute $300 toward the installation of water pipes to bring clean water to the community!

Another woman got her first credit to do petty trade.  With her profits, she created a new women’s group of 15 women that she knew and paid the minimum savings requirement at the rural bank to open a group savings account, which is a requirement to apply for a loan.  They took a loan together to buy 12 sheep.  After selling them and repaying their loan, they used the profits and some of their own money to do vegetable gardening.

The women’s pride truly shined through as members shared their success stories.  It was truly inspiring to see the women feeling encouraged and empowered to end hunger and poverty, and to have already experienced the first changes in their lives.

Coki Epicenter

The rural bank in the Coki Epicenter was formed in 2001 and now has 75 Women’s groups and 804 Individual women members.  They expect their official government recognition by the end of December this year.  The Epicenter itself currently consists of the rural bank building and a milk processing center; and the women, having seen the Epicenter building at Dahra, have great hopes to create the same thing at Coki. 

Members of the Coki Epicenter rural bank leadership with Jennifer Thomson and the THP-Senegal’s AWFFI Coordinator, Fatou Baldé (4^th & 6^th from left), and one male member from the Epicenter Committee (far right)

In the meantime, the rural bank itself has been functioning at full capacity, especially since the end of 2003 when they received a grant through THP from the Rabobank Foundation for about U.S. $12,500 to increase their revolving loan funds.  Even with this capital, they are barely able to meet all of the demand for credit from the women in the area.  For example, in the week before our meeting, they had disbursed $20,000 to Women’s Groups and Individual Members.  And, there was about another $26,000 in additional credit requests that they were not able to satisfy!  They were obviously very excited about what they had accomplished to date and inspired to grow larger.

Richard Toll Epicenter

The word "Toll" actually means "field" or "garden" in Wolof, the main African language of Senegal.  Richard Toll - meaning "Richard's Fields" - was named after the regional development planned by the French planner Claude Richard in the 1820s.  His presence there is not surprising because it is about 110 km along the Senegal River from St. Louis, which was the French colonial capital of Senegal and Mauritania until 1958.  That history is far in the past now; but as an Epicenter it is relatively centrally located and therefore serves to bring together the villages of the three sub-Epicenters of Thiago, Ndombo and Dagana.  Therefore, including all of these Sub-Epicenters, the area covered includes 90 villages and almost 1,200 AWFFI women!!

The most recent AWFFI loan to the women in Richard Toll was for $6,000 in April 2004.  The AWFFI women use these funds plus their own savings mobilized to disburse credit, and in the Third Quarter alone, they were able to disburse $8,560 to the AWFFI members.

Some of the AWFFI women at Richard Toll used their credit for rice farming.  After planting, this endeavor entails hours in the fields banging on containers - like this woman is doing - to scare away the birds who are not deterred by “scarecrows.”

However, AWFFI credit is far from the only activity in which the women at the Richard Toll Epicenter are engaged.  For example, after The Hunger Project’s training of specialized HIV/AIDS Animators in the Gender Inequality & HIV/AIDS Workshop, the women wanted to expand the program even further.  So, they approached the National Council for the Fight against HIV/AIDS of the Ministry of Health and were granted an $8,000 grant for one-year to expand their activities.  With these funds, they were able to attend additional HIV/AIDS training with the district medical officials and to buy a television, chairs, video-cassettes and banners to facilitate their workshops.  The integration of the gender approach in their work was greatly facilitated by Mrs. Korka Diaw, currently the elected President of the Richard Toll AWFFI rural bank, who was sponsored by Oxfam in April this year to attend a gender training workshop in Ghana.

AWFFI-Senegal members with Jennifer Thomson; Richard Toll Women’s Groups President, Korka Diaw, THP-Senegal’s AWFFI Coordinator, Fatou Baldé (2^nd, 3^rd& 4^th from left) in the members’ eggplant garden.

The women’s next big project is to be able to expand their livestock feed production.  Currently, their production is very traditional, but they are looking for financing from the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises to purchase or lease a processing machine and build a processing center.  If this is successful, they plan to get authorized by the Food Technology Institute to sell their production to a larger and more formal market, instead of just the local, informal market. 

Meanwhile, The Hunger Project has assisted in training the teachers of six literacy classes that currently have about 150 learners.  However, like many Epicenters in Senegal, Richard Toll has not yet been able to build their Epicenter building, mostly due to the budget constraints of THP-Senegal.  The communities have identified an area where the building could be constructed and are ready to mobilize their contributions in labor and materials for the construction.  In fact, they are very committed to building their Epicenter so that they can increase their mobilization of the communities as well as expand their activities.  But with many Epicenters to build in, it will take some time before THP-Senegal will be able to provide its partnership in the construction of Epicenter buildings in all of them.  However, it is clear that the women are undeterred, and are forging ahead in many critical areas, as their ambitious endeavors in HIV/AIDS and livestock feed production can attest.

Ndioum Epicenter

Ndioum is about a three hour drive, over 250 km. from St. Louis!  We met with about 40 women from Ndioum and one representative from Namarel, an Epicenter that is very isolated and about 50km away from Ndioum.  In addition, before our meeting, the “Sous-Préfet,” a local government official of the area, came to greet us and to encourage the women in their endeavors.  He told us that another reason that he came out to meet us was because he had met Ms. Joan Holmes, President of The Hunger Project, when she visited southern Senegal 15 years ago in 1989!!  He had been stationed in southern Senegal at that time and was very impressed with what The Hunger Project was doing then.  He stated that he was thrilled that The Hunger Project was once again working in the area in which he was stationed, namely in northern Senegal.  He also encouraged the women by emphasizing that support for women helps the whole society, and that the society can only advance when women are empowered.   

The AWFFI women gathered in front of the Ndioum Epicenter building to discuss the AWFFI program and their other activities.

In Ndioum, the AWFFI program started relatively recently in 2003.  Since that time 23 Women’s Groups, or about 1,000 women, have joined.  Since January 2003, they have disbursed about $31,000 to their members using a combination of AWFFI credit and members’ savings.  They currently have mobilized over $5,000 in members’ savings alone. 

One woman told the story of how the AWFFI activities first started in the area.  She said that when The Hunger Project first came to mobilize the people, some women thought that those that went to the meetings were wasting their time going to meetings.  Now, those same women are rushing to join AWFFI because they have seen the benefits that the first members have been able to achieve!

 AWFFI members in the Ndioum Epicenter.

The women told us about the diverse activities they were able to undertake with AWFFI credit.  For example, one woman used her credit to buy two sheep for fattening and to undertake some small trading activities.  After repaying her loan, she used her profits to fix a horse-cart that her family owned but which had been broken for some time and no one had been able to afford to repair it.  With the repaired horse-cart, her son was able to start a transport business to earn additional income for the family, and also provide a much needed service in the isolated villages in the area. 

One AWFFI member shares her story of receiving credit during our meeting. 

Another woman shared that before they had access to credit, even if a woman wanted to expand her start or expand her income-generating activities, she had no way to do so.  She said that this obstacle led to women not thinking about tomorrow.  Now, however, they are able to do many activities, feed their families well and even save money for the future.  One of her colleagues added that during the AWFFI meetings, they talk about money management and savings.  Therefore, now, women no longer spend all of their money on ceremonies.  They prefer to save some of their money for possible hard times in the future.

Towards the end of our meeting, the representative of the AWFFI women from the Namarel Epicenter stood up to speak.  She told us that Namarel is very isolated so it is very difficult to engage in many economic activities.  Most of the women are involved in livestock raising, and agriculture is impossible because the land is so dry.  There is no electricity, telephones, transport or local market; so in comparison, the village of Ndioum is like a big town for the people of Namarel!  Despite these obstacles, the women are working hard with the credit they have received.  And with the profits, they are helping not only their own families, but also other women in the Epicenter.  She asked for more training in rural banking so that the women of Namarel could have their own rural bank in the next few years, and be able to access credit more easily so that they can fight against hunger and poverty in their villages.

In the meantime, the women in Ndioum are also continuing the VCA workshops as well as literacy and HIV/AIDS & Gender Inequality Workshops.  There are 10 literacy classes ongoing, which shows that the women are really taking advantage of every opportunity to improve their skills so that they can change their lives. 

Final Impressions 

The common themes that have emerged from these discussions are that access to credit is having a great impact on their families and communities, and that repayment-levels remain high, despite the obstacles they have faced.  In addition, the leaders of the rural banks in each Epicenter find themselves victims of their own success as the number of members and requests for credit seem to grow faster than the loan funds!  We promised to do everything we can to steadily increase the loan funds available, as long as the rural bank members maintain their good repayment and savings rates. 

Another major theme that emerged is the communities' strong desire for Epicenter buildings, especially at Coki and Richard Toll, so that they can each have a more powerful center of mobilization.  The communities have already identified land for the buildings and are ready to make their contributions to the construction in terms of materials, funds and labor.  It is very evident that the communities are truly committed to end their own poverty and hunger, and that expansion of the programs would go a long way to empower the communities further.

I would also like to relay the words of praise and thanks to The Hunger Project that the women have expressed to me, for all of the support that The Hunger Project has provided them.  In fact, for the AWFFI program alone, the women of Coki, Dahra, Richard Toll and Ndioum envision being able to manage their rural banks completely independently within 3 years, so that the women will always have access to the working capital they need for their economic empowerment and the well-being of their families.  They conveyed their sense of true empowerment to be able to work in partnership with THP in order to access the training and credit they need to be able to confront poverty and hunger with renewed force.