Njau Women's Garden Fence
Mbaye Kunda Garden

The Gambia is one of the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Over 50% of the population is below the food poverty line. Women and children are the most severely affected by poverty in The Gambia. The continuing trend of increasing poverty has prompted the government to develop long-term strategies to tackle poverty and alleviate its effects on communities.

In The Upper River Division of The Gambia there is a small village called Mbaye Kunda. It is a village composed mainly of people from the Mandinka tribe. The village is situated in the rural, upper eastern portion of The Gambia where drought and food shortages hit hard. There are 600 villagers, many of whom survive on one meal a day during the hungry months; the children are visibly suffering from malnutrition.

At present, the village has one community garden that meets only a portion of the need that exists in this village. The community has asked us to help alleviate the hunger and poverty in the village through the establishment of a second community garden. The Chief has agreed to provide 5 – 6 acres.

The members of the community would like to cultivate onion, red pepper, eggplant, spinach, cucumber, squash and tomatoes, all of which are the staples used in daily cooking. Any surplus vegetables could be sold at the local market so women could obtain rice, groundnut and fish money.

In order to make their bare plot into a flourishing garden, the people of Mbaye Kunda need to purchase gardening supplies. The Bellevue Rotary has provided a cash grant of $2,500 to purchase the buckets, shovels, hoes, posts, nails barbed wire, seeds, and fertilizer the village will need to establish a community garden at Mbaye Kunda. Shelby Tarutis of GambiaHELP received the funds while she was in The Gambia in February 2003 and purchased the needed supplies. She personally delivered the supplies and dedicated the project with the village elders and the chief.

To make a cash donation to this project use the Pay Pal link below.

This project was funded by the Bellevue Rotary Club. Funds have been distributed to Isatou Ceesay, a member of the women’s club. We met with Isatou Ceesay and received receipts for the materials purchased. The community is now making the cement blocks for the fence. It is estimated that the fence will require 4,000 blocks. She will be providing a video and photos of the project at the end of the construction. This project has started rather slowly due to a lack of male volunteers in the village.