OCTOBER 2001

Update on our work in Senegal

Dr. Fitigu Tadesse, Africa Regional Director

Inauguration of new epicenter at Coki in the presence of the deputy prefect.

THP-Senegal has expanded its work to 10 Epicenters covering nearly all of the northern part of the country, including Mpal, Dahra, Koul, Saly-Vélingara, Sagatta Gueth, Dinguiraye, Coki, Ndérepe Ross Bethio and Rosso Senegal. These areas represent 517 villages and over 215,000 people. Expansion to these areas made it possible for THP-Senegal to increase five fold the number of villages where it carries out SPIA programs.

In all the villages and Epicenters, THP-Senegal is focusing on literacy, credit programs and skills training to enable our partners in Senegal to be self reliant, giving them the tools and the technology necessary to create wealth, voluntary savings and ultimately their own rural credit banks. This methodology has proven successful in Senegal in the past. Our first village partners in Mpal and the surrounding villages created their own rural bank which has been recognized by the government.

THP-Senegal is currently engaged in the following programs:

• Food Security
  The joint program of THP and the Ministry of Agriculture focused on vegetable gardens in many of our Epicenters has enabled the villages to increase production of maize, millet and peanuts, as well as poultry farming. The villagers increase their incomes by selling these products in the local markets. In addition, the food banks and storage that the community has built with the partnership of THP-Senegal is now a major shield against hunger and ensures the population will have access to their staple food in the lean season of the year. In addition to the food banks, THP-Senegal is now producing great quantities of nutritious food packages for the children who attend our communities' schools. This food is also readily available to the market so that parents can buy this food for their children.

• Health and Nutrition
  

  Preparation of child nutrition supplements at Mpal Epicenter.

  The Nutritional Recuperation Center for Mothers and Children built in Mpal Epicenter in partnership with the population, is now fully operational. The regional representative of the Ministry of Health is currently running the center, which is addressing the nutritional needs of children and educating mothers about nutrition. The Center is now serving meals to more than 50 children a day and vaccinating some 60 children a day against Polio, Tuberculosis and other diseases. In addition, in cooperation with the population, THP-Senegal has built four health centers in Takhmbeut, Khelcom Diop, Ndakhar and Teud Biti, which are now serving many villages around the Mpal Epicenter. All children of these villages have been vaccinated and over 500 adults have received medical attention. Further more, the provision of drinking water in Ndakhar and Teud Biti has made such an impression on the population, government officials and NGOs alike, that THP-Senegal is under pressure from many sides to cooperate in similar projects elsewhere.

• Income Generating Activities
  Market Gardening Groups for men and women have been formed in numerous villages in the northern region of Senegal. These projects have increased production of potatoes, onions, hot peppers and tomatoes, with the average yearly income per village presently at US $630.
  
  Women's income generating activities have expanded in terms of quantity and quality. Activities range from the production of tie-dye for clothes and dress making, to poultry farming, and cattle fattening. This ensures a continuous source of income for their families living in northern Senegal. As a result of the increased income earned, the women have invested in the construction of a cereal bank and made an additional investment of almost one million FCFA in the expansion of these income-generating activities. In addition, women have also planted several acres of fruit orchards, set up small businesses, and built a village shop (boutique) to sell various goods to the villagers.

• Vision, Commitment and Action (VCA) Workshops
  Since October 1999, the Country Director of THP-Senegal organized several VCA workshops for approximately 500 people from 50 partner villages. The purpose of the workshops was to select and train the first group of village animators in the principles of SPIA and self-reliance. At the end of each workshop, the Country Director selected some people for further training to become animators who then go to villages and empower the rural population to become self-reliant in their work for the end of hunger.
  
  Animators: In our ten Epicenters, we have 3,794 literate women and a total of 662 Animators, men and women working closely with our rural partners to ensure their self-reliance in their efforts to end their own hunger and poverty.

• Economic Empowerment of Women
  THP-Senegal has ensured that women's groups in the 200 villages have access to credit in order to undertake lucrative activities of their own choice. However, in cooperation with Mrs. Penda Diouf-Sene, the National Coordinator of the African Women Food Farmers Initiative (AWFFI), THP-Senegal feels that extensive credit will be available to many more women's groups. So far, the repayment rate on their credits is around 98 %. In addition, women are encouraged to create voluntary savings programs using their own income, so that they keep sufficient funds in the rural bank.

• Revolving Credit:
  The micro-credit program is one of the women's most requested support systems. This credit is vital to improving income and therefore the quality of life of the entire family. Over the past year, many of the women participating in THP-Senegal's programs invested their income in small business ventures followed by revenue-generating activities related to food production and food security, construction of cereal banks and other activities such as sewing and dying. The revolving credit system that has been put in place by THP-Senegal is ensuring a better and higher rate of return so that by the end of the year the women can completely repay the capital and the interest. This new credit system is designed to enable THP-Senegal to increase the return rate while enlarging the credit base for continued lending to additional new villages.
  
  Our credit system involves:
  Progressive return of capital: Repayment terms have been redesigned so that they appropriately match the business cycle of the business, so that payment is due at the time that profit is in fact generated from the enterprise.

• Return of portion of loan interest payments in the revolving loan fund: 5% of the repaid loan interest is deposited back into the original loan fund to ensure the availability of increased finds for future loans.
• Return of portion of loan interest payments in a savings account: 5% of the repaid loan interest is deposited into savings restricted for funding new activities.

To date 467 women's groups totaling 23,500 women have received credit from THP-Senegal in all the 10 Epicenters for a credit amount of CFA 21,665,000 (US $30,048).

• Women have access to financial services at the rural bank at Mpal Epicenter.

  Rural Banks
  Since the community at the Mpal Epicenter created the first rural bank, other communities in the new villages are in the process of raising funds to establish similar rural banks in their areas. THP-Senegal and the AWFFI are working in partnership to contribute initial money for the revolving fund to enable women to have immediate access to credit. In the meantime THP-Senegal has created a committee in charge of the management of the rural bank and is providing them training conducted by a credit and saving expert from the Ministry of Finance.

• Education and Literacy program
  THP-Senegal has extended the literacy program to more than 50 villages, including more than 2,000 people, 98% of whom are women. Because of the program's success, THPSenegal will progressively extend this program to all 200 villages in the region. The program is conducted in two local languages, Wolof and Pulaar, and is currently in great demand among the women. Improving women's literacy rates is an important component ensuring access to credit at the rural banks.

• Future Expansion
  In the year 2000, THP-Senegal will focus on the entire northern region of Senegal and consolidate all the existing programs in over 200 villages. In addition, they will work closely with AWFFI to ensure that this initiative is well established in the northern region such that the women are fully empowered to achieve their goals of self-reliance in the shortest time possible.

Meeting at the new Dhara Djoloff Epicenter.

Impact of THP-Senegal's work

Since its creation, THP-Senegal was designed to bring concrete and measurable results in creating the condition in which people can be empowered and use the SPIA methodology to be self-reliant in their efforts to end hunger and poverty. THP-Senegal has created the framework in which our rural partners can increase food production and improve food security. They have gained access to the necessary training, technology, capacity building and credit needed to effectively launch their work on the ground and ultimately create the local wealth, savings and

autonomous funding sources that will enable them to be self-reliant. It is this way of working that has endeared THP to President Wade of Senegal who has promised to give $100,000 in matching funds to our AWFFI program in Senegal. THP-Senegal's success has also attracted the interest of many national and international NGOs to work collaboratively with THP-Senegal.