Location
Jali Village, Kiang West of Lower River Region, The Gambia
Community Description
Jali is situated right outside the Kiang West National Park and is surrounded by a gorgeous baobob tree forest.
Jali village is a dynamic community filled with strong leaders and hard-working women. They are always looking for ways to improve their standard of living, and understand the importance of community contributions in development projects.
The village is faced by the food security problems that have plagued the region, which is the poorest in the country, and The Gambia as a whole.
In 2009, a Women’s Garden was built “in the bush” which included a fence around a 3 ½ hectare plot, and 6 wells. A total of 350 garden beds were measured out and the women started gardening. Unfortunately, the well diggers did not dig the wells deep enough, and the wells now dry up every day. The women are forced to wake up as early as 3 AM to get water for their plants. They have had to cut back their watering schedule to alternate days to reduce the water strain, greatly impacting on their production output.
Project Description
This project is to improve the 6 wells that support the Women’s Garden so that they provide an adequate supply of water to irrigate the crops during the entire year.
Each well will be dug down to the water table, an additional 3 meters.
The entire project, including labor and materials, will cost $1,627. The community has raised the vast majority of this amount, but it falls short of what is needed to implement the project. Our project funds will immediately be used to purchase materials needed to carry out the project.
Project Impact
There are 189 women and 8 men currently gardening in the community garden. The families of the participants and the entire village of 1,200 will benefit from the vegetables that are produced in the garden.
Peace Corps Volunteer Directing Project
Maggie Rudick
Comments
PCV Maggie Rudick led the Women’s Garden Project, and implemented the Jali Pump
Project – The Gambia with funding from Water Charity. We like to follow up on projects, carried out by motivated people, with projects that expand upon previous successes.
We also like to step in and spend the “last dollar” to take a project from “not working” to “fully functional”. This project qualifies as a very meaningful project in all respects.
Dollar Amount of Project
$437.00
Donations Collected to Date
$437.00
Dollar Amount Needed
$0.00 – This project has now been fully funded, through the generosity of The Soneva SLOW LIFE Trust as a part of their Clean Water Projects initiative.
We encourage others to continue to donate using the Donate button below, and we will notify Peace Corps Volunteer Maggie Rudick of your donation. Additional funds will be used to fund the next project by Maggie and/or those of her counterpart PCVs in The Gambia.
This project has been finished. To read about the conclusion of the project, CLICK HERE.