Food and Futures Grow Strongly in Senegal
In Yako, a small village in Senegal's Sédhiou region, life moves with the rhythm of the seasons. Under a wide blue sky, golden-brown fields stretch endlessly, broken only by the occasional palm tree swaying gently in the breeze.
Draped in a vibrant sunflower-patterned boubou, Nafi Sane stands tall in her community’s fields, surveying the land that sustains her family. The midday sun casts a harsh light on the cracked earth beneath her feet — a reminder of the relentless dry period that grips Yako and much of the region during this time.
Like Nafi, the entire village of Yako draws from the land. Agriculture is a way of life, with the cycle of planting and harvesting central to their survival. Yet, this dependence also makes them vulnerable to the whims of the weather and the persistent challenges of food insecurity.
Inconsistent rainfall, linked to climate change, has made traditional farming precarious and risky. For years, families in Yako and the southern part of Senegal have struggled to grow enough food. Their diets are often limited in nutritional variety and lack vital nutrients, mainly protein.
Before Heifer International and the Senegalese government's National Nutrition Development Council introduced the Nutrition Enhancement Project in Bounkiling (KAYRA) in 2020, which spans 14 municipalities in the Bounkiling and Sédhiou regions, life in Yako was marked by uncertainty. Reliance on the land meant that the villagers' well-being was tightly bound to the unpredictable cycles of rain and drought, especially during the lean season from June to August. For Nafi, this translated into a constant struggle to support her family through her small business, where income was never guaranteed, and the fear of scarcity loomed large.
You know we depend on the rainfall to find food, sometimes we work hard with the hope of harvesting enough to cover the family’s food needs. But it is not often the case. That’s why we have this deficit.” - Nafi Sane
It was during one of these difficult times that Nafi faced her greatest fear: Her youngest daughter, Yacine, fell ill.
What began as a fever soon escalated into something far more serious. Yacine lost weight rapidly, and Nafi was left helpless and afraid. It wasn’t until a weighing day organized through KAYRA that Nafi learned her daughter was facing malnutrition. “As a mother, I must admit that it affected me,” she said.
In Senegal, malnutrition critically affects children under 5 and women in their reproductive years, with severe acute malnutrition in children jumping from 8 percent in 2019 to 10.2 percent in 2023. In the Sédhiou region, specifically, rates are even higher at 12.8 percent, increasing the risk of irreversible damage to brain development and physical growth, especially in the critical first 1,000 days of a child’s life, when proper nutrition is essential for their ability to grow, learn and thrive.
This issue is further compounded by poverty and limited access to healthcare, which have far-reaching consequences on people's skills, education and ability to contribute to the economy, ultimately impacting national development.
In children, one form of malnutrition is undernutrition, and it manifests in four key ways: underweight prevalence, wasting, stunting and micronutrient deficiencies. Wasting is characterized by a severe weight loss, often due to acute malnutrition, while stunting refers to impaired growth and development resulting from chronic undernutrition. Underweight children have low weight-for-age and may experience stunting, wasting or both.
“We use various indicators to measure undernutrition at the field level,” Heifer Senegal Nutrition Specialist Lyna Manga explained. “For example, we give the field agents tools like the middle upper arm circumference tape, which helps measure the nutritional status of the children. We also provide scales and forms to record the type of malnutrition the children are suffering from.”
While the KAYRA project brought a diagnosis to Nafi and her young daughter, it also brought hope, implementing several key strategies to combat malnutrition in Yako and the surrounding region.
Community members are taught to make a nutrient-rich compound flour using locally sourced ingredients, such as millet, beans, rice, maize, cowpea and peanuts, ensuring it is both affordable and accessible.
The flour is used to prepare nourishing porridge packed with essential vitamins like iron and zinc, as well as protein and fats critical for children's healthy growth.
Heifer-trained community facilitators lead training sessions on nutrition, using clear and simple visual aids to educate families about malnutrition and health issues, like diarrhea.
Monthly weigh-ins are organized to monitor children's health, with severe cases referred to nearby health centers, and children ages 6 to 23 months receive micronutrient powder and early-learning activities to promote cognitive stimulation.
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Quarterly screenings monitor for acute malnutrition among children ages 6 to 59 months, with communities managing moderate cases by incorporating the enriched flour into the child's diet, while extreme cases are referred to health centers for treatment.
Additionally, vulnerable households directly receive assets, such as poultry, small ruminants or resources to grow crops, to produce more healthy, nutritious food.
This approach has become a cornerstone in the fight against malnutrition in the village, as Nafi’s daughter, Yacine, and others are now healthy.
"I noticed a big change in the child. Today I can say that my daughter has recovered from malnutrition. ... She is doing well, and I am very happy. ... That is why I keep on giving [the porridge] to my daughter. In addition to that, I realized that it is very nourishing for pregnant and breastfeeding women too." - Nafi Sane
Fueled by her experience, Nafi has now become a community facilitator herself, a role that allows her to educate other women about the importance of nutrition and regular health monitoring.
Community facilitators are mostly young women who live in the village and are identified by the project to help teach others about malnutrition. They already speak the local language and have some baseline knowledge or experience with the condition themselves, but when recruited they receive comprehensive training.
Training typically lasts five days and covers all areas of nutrition, including managing and preventing malnutrition and identifying its different forms, as well as how to conduct awareness campaigns.
As a facilitator, Nafi leads trainings on nutrition and health — teaching other women how to prepare the nutrient-dense porridge and monitor their children’s well-being — and is part of a community-led initiative that equips women with the skills and resources to confidently manage their families' nutrition on their own.
“The support these community facilitators provide helps the women become more empowered,” Lyna noted, adding that many women now produce the porridge on their own.
In several communities, women contribute both financially and by working in shared fields to grow crops like rice, millet, beans and sorghum, many of which are the necessary ingredients for the porridge production. After harvest, they store the yields in a central location, commonly referred to as a granary, keeping it well-stocked so the community can maintain a steady supply of nutritious food when supplies are low.
“We held a meeting and set up an office. After this meeting, we created a children’s granary,” Nafi explained. “We also set up a membership fee — 500 CFA francs for men and 250 CFA francs for women. This money is used to buy everything that is missing in the children’s granary for ... better feeding of the children.”
The impact of this initiative extends far beyond the immediate health benefits, nurturing a sense of community and unity among the women of Yako. Nafi describes how the women now regularly come together to discuss their children’s health, share tips on nutrition and support each other through the challenges of motherhood.
Often, the women whose children I follow call me to ask me when I will meet their children to see how they are doing. Today, the women are very relieved to see their children's nutritional health improving.” - Nafi Sane
The impact of this work has been significant. Now, nearly all children under two years old in the project area regularly participate in nutrition and health screenings. Nearly 90 percent show a healthy weight gain while the percentage of underweight children has also dropped.
Amid this shared progress, Nafi stands as a pillar of a sustainable future in which food security is achieved through community leadership, farmers are the heroes and the next generation rises strong.
"We are hopeful about the future. Because if one’s child is healthy, his growth is assured. Then we can devote our time to achieve our goals.” - Nafi Sane
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