Project Plan

Dear friends of the Wolof,

As many of you know, this past rainy season was disastrous for the Kaffrine area. The rains started late and ended early, and many crops didn’t get the water they needed to fully mature. Fields of millet that would normally stand 10 feet high stopped growing at 5 feet, the immature stalks preparing to form grain but then drying where they stood.

As a result of this failed rainy season, some organizations are warning of food shortages as early as March. At the moment, if you were to visit Kaffrine, you wouldn’t see any signs of famine. But all the organizations around us as well as in West Africa as a whole are warning of widespread food shortage as food runs out in the next few months. This has been verified as we’ve talked to our friends and local government officials as well as the World Vision office here in Kaffrine. [For more background on the famine in West Africa, go to http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=76323.]

The role that we see for ourselves in this time is to try to help in those areas that will be underserved by other organizations. There are some villages in which both the Kaffrine team and World Vision are working, and some areas that we work in but World Vision does not. We will be carrying out our relief efforts in those areas that World Vision will not be serving. For those of you familiar with the area, this is specifically the communauté rurale of Kayi, namely the following villages: Jidda, Touba Keur Cheikh, Niangen Bambara, Sorokogne, Njéré, Khendé, Diaglé, Ndoj, and Wandé.

What we’d like to do in these villages is have a multi-stage and multi-facet response. The crisis is essentially one of too little food, so food distribution will play a role in the response. We’d also like to be able to provide a component of encouragement towards development. Along with the food distribution we’ll distribute dry-season gardening kits that will enable households to grow their own vegetables to supplement their diet with vitamin-rich foods.

We’d also like to be able to do a multi-stage distribution, giving a first round of help as soon as March if possible and another in the time leading up to the rainy season in June. We will monitor the funds received in the project and do what we can with what we have.

As we carry out the project we see it as imperative that the relief go hand-in-hand with evangelism and a clear gospel witness. All of these villages have had chronological Bible storying groups in them, with varying levels of acceptance and interaction. For those villages with Christians in them, this would reinforce the message and the witness of those Christians, and our vision is that those who receive help given in the name of Jesus would begin to think about Him differently. All households in the target villages will be assisted, regardless of their attitude towards the gospel.

Our plan is for a 31,000 CFA (US$70) per household (each household has an average of 10 people) initial gift in the month of March. That would be enough for 50 kgs of rice, 25 kgs of beans, and a dry-season gardening kit consisting of a watering can and several different kinds of seeds. This will not be enough to get a family through to the rainy season, but it would be a help. If we could do a second round of help in June of 35,000 CFA (US$80) that would be a further assistance of 50 kgs of rice, 25 kgs of beans, and seeds for rainy season. If we received more funds, we could do further food distributions.

Month Items Cost in CFA Cost in dollars
1 March Food and gardening kit 28,000 $70
2 June Food and seeds 32,000 $80
Total per household: $150

We estimate the number of households in the eight villages to be 450. The total cost for the first round of aid would be US$31,500; for the second round US$36,000. The total project cost for everything described above for those 450 households would be $67,500.

Although this sum seems large, it is only a portion of what these families will need to get through the rainy season. Even if enough money comes in to do all of what is described here, the receiving families will still be working hard all the way through to make ends meet. For villagers in this rural area, the six months between March and September, when the first crops ripen, will be very long. If the project falls short of the total, we’ll do whatever we can with what we have.

This is a short-term response, with the goal of helping folks underserved by other agencies get through to the next rainy season. The long-term goal of assisting people out of poverty is only partially served by this phase of the work, and through ongoing and future projects we will continue to try to help people get out of the cycle of poverty. In particular, we are developing plans for a large-scale community garden in one area; we will communicate more on that as plans are finalized.

No one of us is called to do this work alone, but as each one gives what God is calling him to give towards this effort to alleviate the results of the famine, families can receive a significant tangible help and an encouragement to see Christ and Christians in a new light. For updates on the Kaffrine Famine Project, go to the project web site (http://kaffrinefamine.blogspot.com/). If you’d like to receive an email whenever this blog is updated, send an email to that effect to corey.garrett@sim.org.

We thank all of you who have already asked how you can help for your willingness to give and for your patience with us as we worked up a plan. You can make donations by check or by credit card.

You can send checks to SIM USA, PO Box 7900, Charlotte NC 28241-7900. Indicate that your gift is for the Kaffrine Disaster Relief Project, project number SN95298.

You can give by credit card by going to SIM’s secure server (https://apps.easydraft.com/Payment/SIM) and again indicating that your gift is for the Kaffrine Disaster Relief Project, project number SN95298.

As you give, if you can let us know by email at corey.garrett@sim.org, that will help us in our planning.

For Christ and His Kingdom,

The Kaffrine Team

Jim and Bev Vaughn (IMB)
Bennie and Maggs Bonthuys (SIM)
Eben and Foong Chan Burger (SIM)
Corey and Katie Garrett (SIM)