Photo By Staff Sgt. Kyle Castrovinci | A 82nd Civil Affairs Battalion Soldier dances with locals in Kedougou, Senegal, Feb....... read more read more
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KEDOUGOU, Senegal – In the rural outskirts of eastern Senegal, one Civil Affairs team partnered with their Senegalese counterparts and helped the Kedougou Women’s Cooperative in a big way during Flintlock 2016 Feb. 24, 2016.
“It used to be very hard when we started to harvest and when there is rain,” said Aissataya Ndiaye, leader of the Kedougou Women’s Cooperative. “The sky starts moving, there is no place we can sit. Between here and Kedougou it is seven kilometers. Seven kilometers and we have to walk. This year we had a lot of rice.”
The problem wasn’t the harvest. Kedougou grows rice, the staple grain of Senegal. Without a rice storage facility a lot of the harvest had gone to waste. That’s when Soldiers from 82nd Civil Affairs Battalion stepped in to help solve the problem and improve the rural economy. The Civil Affairs team partnered with Spirit of America and contracted a storage building.
“It’s going to have a large impact, because previously all their crops were not making it to market and losing a lot of money because of the rain,” said the captain of the Civil Affairs team. “With the storage shed they should be able in increase their productivity and prosperity in the region.”
The civil affairs team partnered with the Senegalese civil affairs team and secured funding for the project with Sprit of America, a Non Governmental Organization aimed at helping the U.S. military with funding for overseas development projects.
“Spirit of America is an NGO that helps fund projects throughout the world,” said the captain. “This one in specific to Africa, they like to make a big impact in communities with small projects.”
The ceremony was great opportunity to showcase the relationship between civil and military operations to the people of Kedougou.
“We have two farms, the first farm and the second farm this [bulding] will help about 600 women,” said Ndiaye.
“The women of Kedagou are brave, hard-workers, farmers. They are brave; if they have help they will work hard. As development is concerned, Kedagou is in the hands of the women,” said Ndiaye.
| Date Taken: | 02.24.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 03.02.2016 09:07 |
| Story ID: | 190801 |
| Location: | KEDOUGOU, SN |
| Web Views: | 70 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 82nd Civil Affairs Soldiers reach out to rural communities for Flintlock 2016, by SFC Kulani Lakanaria, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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