For over two decades, Saffiatou Jammeh has worked the soil in a community garden near her village to grow onions and other vegetables to feed and earn money for her family.
“I have been working here 22 years. When we were coming here in those early days, we even had to cut the trees because it was bushy,” Jammeh said through an interpreter. “In the past,
one of our challenges was fencing around this garden to keep animals out. We had to go into the thick bush and cut some wood to make a fence.”
As the years went on, yields from the garden diminished because of insufficient water. Wells dried up, and the equipment used to draw water was worn out. Approximately 400 women
who tended plots in the garden saw their livelihoods jeopardized by the conditions.
“In the past, my gardening was very bad,” Jammeh said. “My husband asked me to stop because the production was lim-
