Food, or lack of it, is one of the biggest problems facing rural communities in the Sahel.
The people we work with are subsistence farmers, so they grow food for themselves and their families.
In a fragile environment with erratic rainfall traditional crops are vulnerable in a way that trees are not.
TREE AID works with communities to protect and increase crop yields and
establish an additional food supply from tree fruits.
This helps people like Salimata Dembelé in Mali (right) produce more food, reduce hunger and malnutrition and increase resilience
in times of drought.
The situation
In Ethiopia 40% of rural households do not produce enough food or income to meet their basic nutritional needs – the average farming family in a normal year only produces enough to feed itself for five months. 39% of Burkina Faso’s population suffers from chronic malnutrition.
What TREE AID does
Trees themselves produce fruits, seeds, leaves and nuts that all have important nutritional value and really diversify people’s diets. They are also far stronger when it comes to surviving floods and droughts, so can be a real staple in famine situations.
The things that grow on trees also often have value and can be traded at market. Supporting villagers to manage their trees so they stay healthy and productive, as well as enterprise support means the money they earn can buy other foods that they wouldn’t be able to grow themselves.
All of this rests on supporting communities’ access and rights to trees, and on making sure that the natural environment is flourishing, healthy and productive.
The benefits
Families are able to meet their needs – they have access to enough food, and a range of foods that fights malnutrition and are more resiliant in times of hardship.
Salimata Dembelé
Salimata Dembelé (above) is 35 and lives in the village of Fifini in Mali.
Much of her day is taken up with pounding Sorghum and cooking family meals for her husband and children.
As part of TREE AID’s project in Mali Salimata’s dream is “to become an important entrepreneur able to satisfy my own needs and take care of my family.“
