By: Nyima Sillah
Women gardeners in various administrative regions of the country have expressed appreciation for the ChildFund borehole project in their community gardens and appealed for more support to expand their gardens and increase yields.
ChildFund and local partner the Foni Ding Ding Federation played a significant role in providing boreholes in several communities and making access to water easy and beneficial for all.
In Badume Koto, LRR, the borehole project impacted the lives of over fifty women vegetable gardeners, who depend on gardening as a source of living.
Binta Keita, one of the gardeners in Badume koto extended gratitude to ChildFund for the assistance, saying they are still appealing for more support as they face storage facility challenges.
Musa Kebba, VDC chair Badume Koto, explained that before the intervention of ChildFund, the women used to experience many challenges, especially with water, citing that the borehole had impacted the lives of everyone in the community.
“Sixty women are currently working in the garden. The reason why we don’t expand the garden is because the fence is not good. The only vegetable grown is onion as we are scared to grow other vegetables because of the animals. With the water, we are grateful but at the moment our main challenge is the garden fence. So, we are appealing for support from the government, and philanthropists,” he stated.
In Bafuloto in the West Coast Region, the borehole impacted the lives of over one hundred and fifty women. Women leader Isatou Sanyang said they used to experience difficulties in their garden as the fence was damaged, making it vulnerable to animal intrusion. She, however, acknowledged that with the intervention of ChildFund, the garden was secure from animals.
“ChildFund made the fence and helped us with the borehole, which has a positive impact. The women are working hard. We just have a few challenges with seedlings, and some garden tools. We grow different vegetables and sell some to pay for our children’s school bills and shelter them,” she added.
Ebrima Sonko, community mobilizer of Sama Kairo Federation in Bafuloto Community Association, added that the structure of the garden had significantly improved before the intervention of ChildFund and Sama Kairo Federation.
He opined that the women in this community used to suffer a lot in this garden but through their assessment, they were able to figure out their problem and provide a borehole and fencing for their garden which, he said, are very helpful to them and their children.
He assured the women that they would take note of their challenges, regarding garden tools and other issues to effectively assist them in their work.
“From here, we will put our heads together to address these challenges,” he assured.
The organization also provided a borehole for Tendaba village in LRR. Resident Manneh Sanneh said the borehole “is very” helpful to the community.
“We used to lack water from morning till afternoon but since ChildFund intervened, we didn’t experience insufficient water issue anymore, because anytime you open the tap, you have water. The Water is also connected to the nursery school and helps children to access water at any time.”
The secretary of Tendaba VDC Sajor Trawally enthused that the entire village benefits from the borehole, explaining that the taps have been distributed across seven locations. He stated that some of the key locations that have taps and are more vital to the community are the village mosque, market and nursery school.
“These places have both children and adults that can access water at any time. We are grateful to ChildFund for their intervention,” he acknowledged.
The ChildFund also extended support to a backyard garden in Foni, and a ruminant project in Jambanjelly.
