I have two major projects that I am coordinating in the village during this dry season - prime teaching time when the men are not in the fields! The first of which is tree planting!!
I am teaching the villagers about 3 different types of tress - all of which will bring different benefits to the families of these men.
Moringa Tree:
This is often referred to as the "miracle tree" .... the nutrient benefit of this tree is amazing. Through this, one can get Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Iron, Potassium .... so much more, but I'm not playing an infomercial!! After doing a survey of Food Consumption in the village, this is a good way to increase the nutritional intake of the villagers. It is also a good food for malnourished children.
The tree will also benefit in a secondary way - in that, if moringa is feed to the cows, this will increase their milk production. With milk sales being one of the major sources of income for the Fulani - an increase in milk production means an increase in income .... funds which could be used for health issues or more sauce ingredients for their meals.
I will be teaching on nutrition later this year - so this seems like a good combo package!
Acacia Tree:
This is an Australian implant which thrives well in the desert of Niger!! This tree serves a few purposes as well. These trees will be planted around the ring of the field - providing a windbreak to counter soil erosion. The roots of this tree also feed nutrients back into the ground which will benefit the millet that is being grown.
Finally, this tree is an alternate food source - the seeds of this tree can be ground down into a flour and eaten as a mush - similar to the millet or corn porridges that the Fulani already eat. The flour can also be used in combination with other foods and flours to create a weaning formula for infants.
Neem Tree:
Like the Acacia tree - the neem tree will also provide a windbreak against soil erosion and feed nutrients into the soil. But, the main purpose of this tree will be a natural pesticide. The leaves of this tree can be harvested, dried, pounded to powder and mixed with manure for the planting of their millet - this will help control against certain insects and locusts that eat their fields and harvest!
The moringa tree will grow fast - within 3-5 months, they will be able to harvest and begin eating the leaves and seed pods from this tree - and plant more! This will be a good motivator for them as well, to see the benefit quickly of their work, as the other two trees will take (respectively) 2 and 3-5 years to reach maturity and benefice.
The tree planting program has seemed to take on a life of its own - and there are many training sessions and work days going into this program! But, it has been such a joy to see all these 14 men so eager to work and learn!!
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This will be an on-going program over the next few months .... so I will update each Part as a training session takes place!
The first training day was to teach all of these men about each tree and the benefice that it would provide their families.
One of the men reminded me of the character Arnold Horshack from "Welcome Back, Kotter!" that I watched as a kid. Those my age (or slightly older, as I watched the reruns) ... he'd be the teenager who always raised his hand shouting "Oh, Oh, Oh, Mr. Kotter!!"
Well, my villager seemed an exact replica of this character! Through the training session, he kept putting up his hand to ask questions:
"Khadiza: If I see a child that is malnourished, like that picture, can I tell the parents to feed the child moringa? .... That'd be good right??!?"
And, when I said that they could feed moringa to their cows to increase milk production - up went his hand and he was so excited he was practically bouncing and jumping out of his skin: "Oh! Khadiza .... How much should I feed them??!?"
This was a new guy to the training sessions, but I thought to myself: "I like you! You can keep coming back and spreading your enthusiasm!!"
The men headed home from this session to teach about these trees to the men in their village sites - and return with a list of those wanting the trees.
There are now 14 men who are learning how to do a tree nursery (for the acacia and neem trees) ... and later this Spring, we will be training how to plant moringa tree seeds.
Stay tuned over the coming months for all the posts, photos, and videos of the training days!
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