“Farming to stay”
This will ensure that 80 to 100 women in Kafountine not only get sustainable jobs, and thus a sustainable income, but they are also able to meet their own family’s basic needs. There are about 20 to 30 jobs more to come for men working the machines. Rice, vegetables and fruit will be cultivated on 4 ha of land. In the future we plan to expand to include sheep and chicken farming.
The financial investment includes the purchase of good farmland, the construction of a well with a solar powered water pump and an irrigation system for water supply, a tractor with a trailer and tillage attachments, a small house for a “caretaker”, fence, tool shed and a pick-up truck to transport the produce to market. The total cost is € 143.000.
The “farmland to stay” initiative is a women-centered project designed to transform their lives, empowering them to work their way out of poverty. Our goal is that the young people in their homeland find a livelihood through secure jobs and thus have a perspective for their future.
Rice cultivation is very important as is the main staple food, besides fish, in Senegal.
The income from the agricultural project as well as from the fishing project are the economic basis for all our employees and their families.
The vision is to give the people in this region the belief in a self-determined and self-responsible future in their own country, to trust their own abilities and not to move to the capital Dakar or to Europe. In addition, with this support we can protect the local population from land and land speculators.
Let’s help to stay!
Yours Eva Mück and Mamakeh Bodian
in the name of “Diamani Kouta – New Generation” in Kafountine