This project has been completed under the direction of Peace Corps Volunteers Marcie Todd, Garrison Harward, and Amy Watts. To read about the beginning of the project, CLICK HERE.
Marcie reports:
With the conclusion of this second pump in the space, there is now adequate water readily available to properly irrigate the community garden.
In the morning the young boys of the town come to water before heading off to school. The real times to come down the hill though are for the evening watering sessions which are a social event in DKIS and many women shower and put on nice clothes before kicking off their flip-flops and filling their watering cans.
There are two main community leaders in Daro Keur Ibrahima Signane (DKIS) to whom Peace Corps Volunteer Amy Watts attributes DKIS’s success. Baboucar Boussou and Cheikh Dione genuinely want to see their village succeed and have worked hard to make sure it happens.
Baboucar Boussou is hard working, cleaver, innovative, and a dependable peace-maker in times of community division. He is the community leader for all things food-related in DKIS including the school lunch program and directing the women’s garden. Baboucar does a role reversal taking on the director position of the women’s garden as that is traditionally a woman’s job. He handles everything from the division of plots to materials and does it with ease while also working on his field crops and working with other organizations such as Wula Nafaa.
Cheikh Dione is the full time director of the primary school, a part-time farmer, and he and Baboucar are stuck at the hip. Cheikh speaks English, Arabic, French, and Wolof, is super bright, always smiling and only 33 years old. Cheikh is a staple at the community garden and one can often find him wandering around helping the women water.
Peace Corps has been working in DKIS for the last 5 years but the women’s garden was established only 3 years ago. It has come a long way, as every single plot is filled and more is produced each year!
Pump Output: 37 Liters/ Min
Total Number of People Benefiting: 78 families
Funder: Jacqueline Chan in honor of Heather Chan
