Tag Archives: senegal

It’s That Time Again

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When the newest edition of World Ark will be appearing in mailboxes around the country. Our special Holiday issue includes three country features in addition to Heifer’s Most Important Gift Catalog in the World.

Women’s empowerment is highlighted in two stories this issue. Puja Singh, Heifer Nepal’s communications and networking officer, takes a look at how projects in Bangladesh are helping women find opportunities that were once denied to them. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also weighs in on why women are key to successful development work in an expanded Asked and Answered interview.

Our Managing Editor, Donna Stokes, also writes about the USAID | Yaajeende project in Senegal, where participants received sheep as part of what will become Heifer’s largest animal distribution ever. Photographer Olivier Asselin illustrates the essay with gorgeous photos from “The Day the Sheep Came.”

The third feature story in the issue addresses habitat conservation in Malawi. Austin Bailey traveled to the project near Kasungu National Park to see a Heifer project that provides families with sustainable sources of animal protein, fuel and savings, so that they no longer need to illegally hunt in the park for food.

And if any of our faithful readers remember Ryan Bell from last year’s Holiday issue, well, he’s back. After a wildly successful campaign in which he raised $8,000 for Heifer, Ryan has launched a new effort to raise $25,000 for us. Ryan recently underwent a few surgeries to help lengthen his jaw bone and was so inspired by his own physical transformations that he wants to give his own “Gift of Transformation” to those in need, no matter how long it takes for him to raise the money.

So get out and check your mail, or check back soon at www.heifer.org/worldark for the online edition of the magazine. Happy reading!

Crisis in the Sahel

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Though it hasn’t received much news coverage here in the United States, there’s another part of Africa facing a food crisis. This time it’s the Sahel region that stretches across the continent between the Sahara and the lusher areas to the south that’s feeling the effects of drought, rising food prices, and in some areas, conflict and locusts.

It is estimated that about 13 million people are in need after the rains failed last year,

Children share a mid-afternoon meal of millet porridge in Diarrere, Senegal.

prolonging a drought that has made it difficult for families to grow food in a place where the growing season is already very short. It remains to be seen what kind of rainy season the region will face this year.

Food prices also rose for the third time in three straight months in March, making it that much more difficult for families who have little to pay for the food that with which they would normally supplement their diets.

The U.S. has sent nearly 40,000 tons of sorghum to the region with it’s expected arrival at the end of the month. UNICEF is also working to raise awareness of the crisis, particularly through its social media channels. They’re right to point out that, like what happened in the Horn of Africa last year, this crisis is preventable.

In Senegal, Heifer has helped the people in this region manage the dry conditions for the past two years, and has prepared them for precisely the kind of situation the region is facing now. Heifer’s projects have equipped participants with a short-haired sheep specially suited to area’s heat, goats, pigs and seeds that can thrive even in the Sahel soil.

Participants are also spreading manure on the nutrient-depleted soils to replenish them, and planting acacia trees to provide shade and help the soil hold water and not blow away.

It’s a long-term solution for an acute problem, yes, but it’s providing people with the means to survive and thrive in changing climates and conditions.

Women Taking the Floor

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Editor’s Note: A commitment to empower women is embedded in Heifer International’s core values for sustainable development. In honor of International Women’s Day on Thursday, March 8, this week we’re sharing the stories of Heifer participants who take the gifts of animals and training and run with them to extraordinary results for themselves and their communities. Through hard work and innovations, each woman secures her rightful place in the family, the marketplace and the world.

The seating arrangement at a Heifer training session in Fandene on a hot May day in 2010 was fairly typical for this rural region of a strongly Muslim country: men in the front, women in the back. Mame Penda Ndong, though, scooted her chair forward and sat boldly in the front row, keeping her eyes straight ahead so she doesn’t catch any of the disapproving glances cast her way.

“In Senegal, we don’t like women sitting in the front row, displaying themselves,” a male translator explained.

There were other things about Ndong that set her apart, too. Unlike the other women, Ndong left her head uncovered, and she embellished her short hair with shiny synthetic coils. In her lap she clutched a hot-pink leather purse, and a sassy purple bra strap peeked out from the neck of her anango, a traditional dress.

Ndong grew up in Fandene, and was lucky to get a much better education than most of her peers. She nearly finished high school, and her schooling earned her a job in the nearby city of Tataguine, away from the hot and sandy days of sun-up to sundown manual work, which the women who stayed in Fandene take on.

But Ndong clearly didn’t flee to the city, never to return. She comes home almost every weekend to help monitor the Heifer project she helped start. She brings along her two sons and one daughter, but her husband is far away, working in the United States. She’d like to bring the entire family home to Diarrere to stay if the Heifer sheep thrive, the improved seeds produce healthier yields and the project becomes successful enough to support more people.

After living in a city for years, miles away from the rigid gender roles that dominate village life, Ndong doesn’t hesitate to speak up or claim a chair for herself while the other women sit on the ground to leave the better seats for the men. Do the men deserve such respect and special treatment? It’s part of the Senegalese culture, but it’s a part that might be changing, she said. Encouraging other women to sit in the front row and take on leadership positions is taking some time, but Ndong said she’ll press on.

“Men speak a lot, but they don’t act much,” she said, nodding toward a cluster of men smoking and drinking tea nearby. Women are different. “You don’t see them speaking a lot, but you see them working a lot. If you look at the project here, you’ll see the women do more. If they don’t take the floor, they’ll be working on things they don’t decide.”

Link: http://www.heifer.org/media/world-ark/archives/2011/summer/women-taking-the-floor

Brains and Brawn

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Editor’s Note: A commitment to empower women is embedded in Heifer International’s core values for sustainable development. In honor of International Women’s Day on Thursday, March 8, this week we’re sharing the stories of Heifer participants who take the gifts of animals and training and run with them to extraordinary results for themselves and their communities. Through hard work and innovations, each woman secures her rightful place in the family, the marketplace and the world.

Photo by Geoff Oliver Bugbee


Thirty-year-old Clarice Tine has biceps Madonna would die for, plus she’s got her hands on the money.

Tine is the treasurer for the Fandene community group near Thies in Senegal. Her group is working with Heifer to bring brawnier breeds of sheep and pigs to their village, where need grows each year as the weather turns drier and less hospitable to traditional crops.

Women’s lib is slow to catch on in rural Senegal, but Fandene embraced Tine as the obvious choice to be the money man.

“What they are looking for is someone who is fair and honest. If you give the responsibility to a woman, you will have that,” our translator Mbouille Diallo explained.

The vice chairman of the group in Fandene is also a woman, although the leadership in most neighboring villages is solely male. A junior high graduate and trained seamstress who earns extra money doing intricate embroidery work, Tine had the education credentials and work ethic to take on a leadership role. And she lived for a few years on her own in the raucous capital city of Dakar, proving she had savvy.

Tine’s awesome arms come from toting around her sons, ages 5 and 2, and fetching water at the well each day. Both of these jobs are considered women’s work in Senegal.

But here’s the thing. Schlepping toddlers and hauling dozens of buckets of water up from a well 40 feet deep apparently result in gorgeous arms and shoulders unmatched by any of the men we spied nearby. Madge, take note.

Massive Livestock Project Underway in Senegal

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A historic distribution of farm animals is happening right now in Senegal, over the course of severalmonths. It may be the largest animaldistribution in Heifer International’s 68-year history.

This remarkable video shows you some of the faces and voices of the people who will gain new independence with these animal gifts.

The distributionof sheep, goats and chickens will reach 5,500 families, and is part of a $40million new USAID Feed the Future project. The Yaajeende Agricultural Development Program comprises aconsortium of five organizations, including Heifer. Yaajeende means“abundance” or “prosperity” in the local Pulaar language, and reflects thegoals of the project: to improve the nutrition and income of one million individualsacross 60 regional communities.

FrancisBouba, Heifer Senegal country director, says it makes sense for various organizations with different expertise to join together in order to help many more families. “In terms of livestock, Heifer isthe lead in Senegal, which is why we were selected for this high-profile project.”

Heiferestimates that the increased economic activity resulting from the project willdouble the household incomes of farmer participants, which in turnwill substantially reduce the number of underweight children.

This projectis at the front edge of ambitious efforts by Heifer International to scale upits work fighting hunger and poverty across the globe. By the end of thefive-year Yaajeende project, in addition to thefirst families receiving animals and training from Heifer, thousands morewill benefit when those families Pass on the Gift of their livestock’soffspring.

Poor=Lazy?

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Greeks and Italians have been taking some blows lately as their economies crumble. Why can’t they be more like their wealthy, tidy northern neighbors in Germany and Holland, critics want to know. Fellow European states are putting pressure on the Mediterranean governments, suggesting that they can borrow money as long as their citizens work harder and save more.

But is laziness really to blame? Turns out the stereotype of the lazy Latins vs. the enterprising northern Europeans doesn’t hold up. Slate writer Matthew Yglesias pulled the numbers and found that Greek, Spanish and Italian workers all put in significantly more hours than the Germans and Dutch. “The truth is that countries aren’t rich because their people work hard. When people are poor, that’s when they work hard,” Yglesias wrote.

This simple truth extends beyond Europe’s borders, and it brought to mind how I feel every time I visit Heifer project sites and meet the people there. In Senegal last year I met a mother of four named Fatou Dione who wakes up before 6 a.m. every day to pound and cook millet for breakfast, fetch water, hunt for firewood, care for the family’s sheep and send the children off to school. She also works in the fields and cares for aging family members, responsibilities that keep her moving until after the sun sets. Fatou lives in a hut made of sticks and relies on her brother-in-law to send money when the family’s stores of millet run low.

I often think of Fatou when my morning routine goes awry and I’m late getting myself and my two boys out the door. Dirty diapers and temper tantrums are a hassle, but hot water pours automatically from my faucets, my refrigerator is stocked with food and the only animals I have to care for are a dog and a cat. Pretty easy stuff, really. I’m certain Fatou works harder and is more tired at the end of the day than I am, and still I have so much more. It’s humbling and eye-opening and it certainly confirms what my mother always told me, “Life isn’t fair.”

My mother also told me that we all get what we deserve in the end. I wish that was true, but after meeting Fatou and so many other clever and hard-working Heifer project participants around the world, I know for a fact it’s not. What you start with usually dictates what you’ll end up with, so let’s all count our blessings. At the same time, let’s work together to make sure brilliant, driven, loving people in places Heifer works have a decent shot at getting what they deserve.