A son of Senegal.

We are so fortunate to have as our CREATE! Country Director Kebe Ibrahima, truly a son of the region.

Kebe grew up in these villages, speaks the language of our beneficiaries, and has walked in their shoes.

His experience and commitment to humanitarian work, social mobilization and rural community development have already proven invaluable.

Welcome home, Kebe, and thank you.

The fruits of our labor.

We can hardly believe that just a few months ago the land that produced these eggplants looked like this:

It wasn't easy, but with all of us working together, clearing and weeding and watering, we made a garden grow where before there had been only grass.

We carried the water on our heads, and our babies on our backs, and gratitude in our hearts for the harvest that we would enjoy.

There is much more to do, but for now, we pause to celebrate and to share with you the fruits of our labor.

We thank you for your support.  We could not have done it without you.

CREATE! is in the news.

We're excited to see that the word about CREATE! is spreading, from the Senegalese villages of Fass Kane, Ouadior, Ouarkokhokh and Ndiaakhaye to the American cities of Austin, Chicago, Boston and Portland.

This article has just appeared in Sustainable Business Oregon:

Texas-based SpawGlass helps fund sustainability in Africa

We thank the SpawGlass Corporation, their foundation and employees for reaching out to help us in our efforts to help people make a better life for themselves and their families.

Three hundred kilos of eggplant!

Apparently the eggplant that Madame Toutane is displaying in the photo below is just one of 300 kilos--more than 600 pounds--of eggplant that her group has already harvested and sent to market from the land that they have cultivated with the help of CREATE!

The women say, "Last year we were sitting and doing nothing, and now look!"

What's the difference?

Water, water, and more water--in two reservoirs that the community members dug and finished with their own hands, on land donated by the community, using materials and guidance provided by CREATE!


Exciting news....stay tuned for more news and photos as Barry continues his reports from the field.

"Your project is different."

Like many poor people the world over, Toutane Diagne has seen aid projects with grand ambitions come to her village, only to close up shop and leave before their goals were accomplished.

But Madame Toutane says that CREATE! is different.

She says that this is not the first time the people in her village have tried to work together to solve problems, but that in the past "we tried but stopped because of lack of resources."

She goes on to say, "When you came, we were hesitant at first, but then we realized that your project was different.  And we were not wrong. Thanks to your action, we are harvesting. Now our aim is to grow all kinds of trees and vegetables.  And we know that we will succeed, because CREATE! is showing us how to help ourselves in small ways. We know that anything is possible."

Harvesting hope.

These women are members of a group organized in the community of Fass in northern Senegal.  With guidance from CREATE! this group took advantage of the short rainy season to plant eggplants and melons in their community garden, and they have now begun to reap the benefits of their efforts.

The women say that the harvest gives them hope, and that CREATE! is different from other organizations that have come to their village because of the ways in which we have involved the community in planning and implementing projects very quickly. 

Toutane Diagne, one of the elders of the group, says “It is important for us to make this project successful through our own efforts.  We cannot expect donors just to give us things, and CREATE! encourages us to mobilize even small contributions from the community to meet our own needs.  For example, when we decided to build a reservoir, the community provided the labor and CREATE! contributed cement, chicken wire and iron bars.  Now we have a beautiful reservoir and everybody is happy.  We wish that god will bless you and our operation.”

Today and every day.

When you start your day going in search of water, or firewood, or food, it doesn't leave a lot of time for earning a living.

When you need to send your children to do the same, it doesn't leave a lot of time for them to go to school.

Today and every day,  for families living in rural Senegal and in many other places in sub-Saharan Africa, this is the reality.

Because of drought, deforestation and other effects of global warming, people who for centuries have lived comfortably in their native villages are finding themselves sinking deeper into poverty.

Today and every day, CREATE! is working to change this reality, to help people learn how to catch and conserve water, to reduce the amount of firewood that they need for cooking their food, to plant more trees, and to grow vegetables even in the dry season.

CREATE! Appropriate Technology Center Under Construction in Fass

Our first Appropriate Technology Center is now under construction in Fass on a plot of land that was donated by the community for this purpose.

The Appropriate Technology Center in Fass is one of two CREATE! training and demonstration centers that will be established to serve nine villages in our initial project zones.

The second CREATE! Appropriate Technology Center will be constructed in the village of Ouarkhokh on a 2.5 hectare site, also donated by the community.

These centers will themselves be living examples of renewable and appropriate technologies and their application to improving rural life in the key sectors of water, energy, food production, income generation, and environmental protection.

Each CREATE! Appropriate Technology Center will demonstrate solar panels for lighting and water pumping; low-cost cisterns and rain catchment systems for water storage; a year-round vegetable garden and tree nursery; improved cookstoves; solar food dryers, ovens, and hot water system; a small resource library; tree plantation; and a training area for cooperative groups, youth, and field agents.

CREATE! Where We Work

CREATE! is implementing its initial country program in Senegal, West Africa. Senegal is not only representative of many Sub-Saharan African countries hardest hit by the increasingly disastrous effects of global climate change, but represents one of the most daunting challenges to respond to it, especially as it affects the rural poor.

Rural village populations in Senegal, already under severe hardship, are increasingly subjected to the aggravated inter-connected effects of global climate change, threatening their access to water, their ability to grow sufficient food, their health, their livelihoods, their way of life, and their lives.

CREATE! seeks to face this challenge and assist these populations with small-scale, accessible "appropriate" technologies – technologies that are adapted to, and fit, their local conditions -- and with human needs-based strategies that can both ameliorate their lives and build their capacity to meet these inter-connected challenges.

CREATE!’s country program is being implemented in two main areas, comprising a total of nine villages. One zone is in the rural north of Senegal, centered around Linguere in the Louga Region. CREATE! implements activities in four villages in this region. The other zone is in the central-west of Senegal, centered around Gossas in the Fatick Region. CREATE! implements program activities in five villages in this region. The total beneficiary population of all nine villages is approximately 20,000 people, comprised of ethnic agricultural Woloffs and pastoral Peulhs. The average per capita annual income of the population in these villages is approximately $350/year.

There are potential CREATE! project zones throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and other areas of the developing world. CREATE! will expand to other villages and countries as funding and other resources permit, based on a well-documented track record of dynamic and effective implementation in Senegal.



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CREATE! in Senegal

CREATE! is working in Senegal to help rural village communities deal with the impact of climate change on their lives, livelihoods and families. We are planting trees, rehabilitating village wells, installing solar water pumps, and training people in the construction of improved cook stoves using locally available materials.

Our Country Director, Kebe Ibrahima, is working alongside local villagers to clear land for new tree nurseries and communal gardens. He will keep us updated on their activities here and on our website at http://www.createaction.org.

We look forward to your comments.