Food Security Niger Project #21564

Women's Community Gardens in Niger

by Rain for the Sahel and Sahara

Project Report | Nov 29, 2022
Extreme Weather, Rainmaking Planes, and Resilience

By Katherine Kolios | Executive Director

Investing in women impacts entire communities

We’ve been talking about climate change for decades, but the impacts have never felt so real. While 80% of Niger is desert, extreme weather is leading to record-breaking floods. Between June-July 2022, 108,000 Nigeriens were left homeless with 25,900 homes flooded. By late August, drought was sparking fears of food crises and prompting the national meteorology institute to deploy rainmaking planes. These weather patterns feel like something out of a dystopian sci-fi novel. But they’re the reality for Nigeriens in 2022.

While there are no simple solutions, RAIN has been working hand in hand with Nigeriens for twenty years and together we are helping families and communities cope with these changes.

This year, RAIN is launching a climate resiliency project in collaboration with Pathfinder International. We’re combining RAIN and Pathfinder’s expertise to better ensure women are supported and connected with the resources they and their families need to navigate this climate. From irrigated community gardens using climate-adapted seed varieties to women-run businesses that bring daily needs to local markets, this project will create stability in a changing climate.

When women have agency, resources, and support, everything changes. There’s data to back that up. Women invest 90% of their income in their families compared to 35% of income among men. This explains why their income impacts family health 4-7x more than fathers’ income and the effect on child survival is about 20x larger than the effect of fathers’ (Duncan Thomas). But women are under-resourced. For every year a girl stays in school, her earning potential rises, she marries later, has children later, is less likely to die in childbirth, and is more likely to raise healthier children who themselves attend school and have better outcomes for their kids.

RAIN has big plans this year – working with 450 women to invest in environmentally and economically sustainable food and water systems and to launch entrepreneurial projects. We believe that these investments are what people need to weather the storm – figuratively and perhaps even literally. These are ambitious goals, but we’re committed because we know we’re needed. You are also needed.

Your past gifts helped change the course of so many lives, but we’re not done yet. You can help us build a future full of opportunity and transform the lives of an entire generation.

Can we count on you to match or increase your gift, so that this next generation can help change the tide?

Over 20+ years, we have seen a lot of success stories. If you want to help make more of those, I invite you to make a donation today. Perhaps even consider asking a friend or loved one to match your gift. None of us can do it alone, but together, we’ve got a chance.

Women invest 90% of their income in their families

RAIN will help 450 women build climate resilience

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Jul 19, 2022
Community Training Leads to Success

By Amy Warnock | Development Manager

Women Working in the Garden in Nassile

RAIN works with rural Nigerien women, to provide training in environmentally sustainable agricultural practices such as organic techniques, how to monitor and improve soil quality, how to deal with pests using organic, local solutions, and the impact of chemical pesticides. We also engage our gardeners in nutrition training that exposes them to the various crops that help build a balanced diet. On average, partner communities work with twelve to twenty crop varieties at a time, ranging from yalo and moringa to eggplant and carrots. By providing diverse seed varieties and teaching basic nutrition, community gardens reinforce balanced diets and help combat illness, malnutrition, and hunger.

This year, 109 women received bi-monthly training from RAIN field agents. Additional topics included setting up nurseries and sowing techniques for crops, as well as work standards, such as how the cooperative garden would be set up, run, and overseen.

In Betarmatas: 34 women gardeners used their training to grow produce including cabbage, onions, tomatoes, corn, wheat, and squash. Program participants developed garden and well management committees, determined representatives, and held periodic meetings to raise community awareness. They also created systems for collecting funds, enacting minor repairs, and collaborating with local authorities to maintain infrastructure. The committee provided trainings on hygiene, sanitation, and waterborne diseases. They also fenced in their spigot to keep animals away and enacted rules around spigot usage to maintain hygiene.

In Torguit: 45 women gardeners established a management committee, holding periodic meetings to raise community awareness and collaborating with local authorities to maintain infrastructure. When their well was temporarily out of order, the committee raised over 150,000cfa, sourcing spare parts to resolve the issue quickly.

In Ankaf: 30 women gardeners are also learning about sustainable agricultural practices adapted for their community, including companion planting and making and using organic fertilizer and pesticide.

So far, the RAIN-supported community gardens yielded more than 3,000 kg of produce including:

2,435 kg tomatoes
368 kg onions
145 kg cabbage
50 kg corn

They’re also growing lettuce, wheat, moringa, and herbs.

We look forward to building on this groundwork to continue training gardeners in agribusiness and equip them with entrepreneurial skills to increase their income from gardening activities. Thank you for helping RAIN build this strong foundation.

PS: July 31st is Pan African Women's Day! Please join us in celebrating the achievements of African women and advocating for gender equality by donating to causes that support African women and sharing this project with friends and family.

Harvesting tomatoes

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Mar 25, 2022
A Hopeful Harvest

By Amy Warnock | Development Manager

Forming the Committee

Community sits at the heart of much of RAIN's programming. When launching a new endeavor, like the agriculture program, RAIN holds community meetings to discuss the program, the work involved, and the qualities of a successful participant. These discussions yield a working group of women who, in collaboration with RAIN Field Agents, discuss the Sustainable Agriculture group’s responsibilities and program goals. This allows the women to form a group that feels organic and cohesive, which is critical as their success is tied to their group as a whole.

RAIN also works with the community to establish management committees for the wells and gardens and to determine committee structure and responsibilities. To build ownership, reaffirm self-sufficiency, and facilitate giving back to the community, committee members are elected by the community itself. Maintenance committees include a president, secretary, treasurer, and two health and hygiene advocates.

2022 Program Updates:

In Torguit, the community has contributed $250 dollars (half of the annual gross domestic product per capita) to manage the maintenance of the well installed by RAIN in 2021.

The committee has already successfully overseen some minor repairs to the well. When a larger piece of the well needed to be replaced, the committee successfully contacted the head of the local hydraulics department who negotiated with the drilling company to source and finance the needed piece and repairwork.

In Betarmatas, the water management committee doubled the monthly contribution of 500f per household per month to 1,000f per household per month for a savings of 114,000cfa per month.

Further, the 34 women in Betarmatas' Sustainable Agriculture group harvested 5,517kg of tomatoes, the most productive tomato harvest in the region. Production was so successful that people from other communities asked the group for advice for their own tomato crops! Tomatoes are often dried before being sold, which enables the women to sell them for more money. The group also had success growing corn, cabbage, onion, and lettuce for this year's harvest.

Much of the produce is sold fresh in town and what can’t feed people is used to feed the livestock they’re fattening up for sale. In total, the group earned 175,000 (almost $300) from the produce that has been sold so far (almost half annual gross domestic product per capita – which is a significant income increase for rural communities). As the season changes, the women are now planting more wheat and moringa.

We would like to thank you for helping to provide women with access to the training, resources, and capital they need to establish financial security. By giving women the opportunity to independently build their own livelihoods, we not only promote gender equality but help whole villages to flourish.

Please consider sharing this project with friends and family and asking them to match your gift and double your impact!

Harvesting onions

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