A group of men in Darou Diadji gather to begin rehabilitation on their community’s well. Their skills and labor will ensure access to water for the village’s new cooperative garden.
Although the majority of CREATE!’s work in Senegal focuses on women, men are also an important part of our program activities. Like their wives and sisters, men participate in CREATE! programs to gain financial and agricultural skills to improve their lives.
Many men serve as CREATE! community volunteers. Community volunteers help cooperative groups conduct heavy labor such as clearing brush and building fences. They also work as guards to protect community garden sites and provide guidance to cooperative members as needed.
Men in CREATE!’s partner communities work hard to provide for their families and are supportive of their wives. They are thrilled that women will have opportunities for training in agriculture and financial management from CREATE!
When men are active participants in CREATE! activities, they typically encourage their wives, sisters, and daughters to also participate. In our new partner communities of Walo, Gagnick Mack, and Darou Diadji, men are helping to rehabilitate wells and prepare the new garden sites. Because these men feel included and appreciated, they are pleased that their wives can also be part of this new program in their communities.
A mason, Mame Fall is currently helping to build a platform for the water reservoir near the site for the new cooperative garden in Walo.
Mame Fall, 32, lives in Walo with his wife and two children. Although CREATE! just recently began program activities in Walo, Mame is already praising his community’s progress. “Thanks to the improved cookstoves, I no longer have to go to the bush every day to fetch wood for my wife, letting us both devote time to other important work,” he says. Mame has big expectations for the future of the Walo-CREATE! partnership. “We hope,” he says, “that our work with CREATE! will bring remarkable changes to our community and our livelihoods.”