Senegal

Hellen Keller International has not send a proposal since 2022, so we will pause our Senegal project for the time being and see when and if we can become active there again.

MiA supported a project in northern and central Senegal with the organization Helen Keller International in 2020 and 2021. Drilling and building wells which provided clean water for drinking and agricultural irrigation for about 900 people.

Although Senegal has already made great strides in combating child malnutrition, an estimated 19 percent of children under five years of age still suffer from nutritional deficiencies. And anemia rates, the number suffering from blood deficiency, remain among the highest in the world here. 71 percent of children under the age of five and 54 percent of women of childbearing age are affected. Lack of access to water for agricultural irrigation is a persistent threat to food security in northern and central Senegal.

We are worked with Buddhist Global Relief's long-time partner, Helen Keller International, to support the construction of wells with solar and gravity irrigation systems which provided clean water for drinking and agricultural irrigation in surrounding villages. The project also trained and encouraged local communities to manage infrastructure and water distribution, and provided farmers with agricultural inputs such as seeds to grow a variety of nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables.

In 2021, donations helped the communities of Adéane and the village of Médinatoul Salam to build two mini boreholes. These two boreholes will allow the population to have access to drinking water and to irrigate their fruit and vegetable crops. The mini borehole in Adéane ensures the supply of fruit and vegetable cultivation and also drinking water for 2,700 women out of a total population of 7,620 people. The borehole in Médinatoul Salam is used by 159 women for fruit and vegetable fields and provides drinking water for 320 people.

Text: Raimund Hopf and Tobias Trapp