Andando
Current donation: $75,000
Donations to date: $205,000
Andando helps rural Senegalese farmers dramatically increase their food security by teaching climate-smart agriculture practices. Our support will allow Andando to operate two native tree nurseries in the Kaolack and Podor regions of Senegal, with a combined annual production capacity of over 50,000 trees, add an additional 200 women and their families to its permaculture garden program, and provide clean water to two new communities, supporting health, food security, and environmental restoration.
Why They're Climate Smart
In Senegal, hundreds of years of destructive colonial agricultural practices have led to severe deforestation and loss of soil fertility. Andando combats this by constructing women's permaculture gardens, installing solar pumps for water generation, partnering with local farmers to incorporate native trees into field crop production, and reforesting lands using the forest garden permaculture method (intentionally placing plants to mimic the natural environment).
Today, Andando's 42 women's permaculture gardens produce an average of 500,000 pounds of organic produce and generate over $150,000 in profits annually for more than 4,000 women and their families, without any pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers. In addition, they have reduced water consumption, created fertile topsoil, and established natural barriers (live thorny fences and windbreaks) that both protect the land and sequester carbon.
Why They Get Our Continued Support
Since beginning our partnership, Andando has established 8 new women's cooperative gardens, adding over 1,000 women and their families to the program, planted over 95,000 trees, provided vital water access to over 5,000 indigenous pastoralists, and created two regional tree nurseries that are now vital resources supporting land restoration efforts across 50+ rural communities. Now, with our continued donation, Andando will expand tree planting activities in more remote indigenous communities in northern Senegal, provide zero interest microloans and training for 300 farmers in FMNR (Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration) techniques, install solar water systems in two new remote villages, and construct a new training center in northern Senegal to combat desertification.