I decided to start a small series on the projects I've been working on, starting with the local market as many readers supported the initiative. Here are all the updates so far, including photos of recent progress. Thank you for your interest and support!
Updates II – April 2024
Phase I Progressing Smoothly
In December 2023, I was able to travel home to surprise my family for Christmas. During that week in America, I was able to retrieve the $3,350 raised by you generous souls reading this, along with $250 in personal commitment. Upon returning to country, I received another donation of $200, thus bringing the total raised to $3,800. Since this was entirely in $100 bills, cash, I was able to exchange at the prevailing rate of D67.5/$1, providing a grand total of D256,500.
Once exchanged, my counterpart and I bought supplies and organized labor according to the updated budget below:
Item | Quantity | Unit Cost | Cost |
Cement | 100 | 395 | 39,500 |
Corrugate | 24 | 1750 | 42,000 |
40x40 angle iron | 22 | 1000 | 22,000 |
Round pipe | 10 | 1900 | 19,000 |
Tractor usage (sand/gravel/etc.) | >17 | N/A | >13,800 |
40x40 pipe | 21 | 650 | 13,650 |
10 mm rod | 25 | 365 | 9,125 |
Roofing hook | 300 | 26 | 7,800 |
Transportation (materials) | 3 | N/A | 6,100 |
Plywood | 2 | 1400 | 2,800 |
6 mm rod | 10 | 165 | 1,650 |
1x2 wood | 10 | 140 | 1,400 |
Binding wire | 2 | 125 | 250 |
3 in nails | 2 | 125 | 250 |
2 in nails | 1 | 125 | 125 |
Door | 2 | -- | -- |
Half-door | 3 | -- | -- |
Window | 2 | -- | -- |
Total (materials) | - | - | >D179,450 |
Mason | 1 | N/A | 70,000 |
Welder | 1 | N/A | 20,000 |
Total (labor) | - | - | D90,000 |
Total (all) | - | - | >D269,450 |
Shortfall | - | - | >D12,950 |
Excitingly, we have been able to add the store back into the project, although we scaled back the size by 2 meters. Thus, we have built a foundation for a 7-meter by 8-meter selling area and a 7-meter by 3-meter storage room (which can be split into 2 rooms in the future, depending on community need). We have also been able to buy all the supplies necessary for the entirety of the project, except the doors.
So far, we have laid blocks for the storeroom and the side walls. We have also begun the roofing work. Fortunately, I was able to recently pull out $500 more with the help of my brother, which should be sufficient to address remaining funding shortfalls for the welder and the doors.
Updated Implementation Plan
Phase | Step | Person(s) Responsible | Timeline | Status |
0 | Transfer funding from US | Me | January 2024 | Complete |
Buy materials | Me & my counterpart | January 2024 | Complete | |
1 | Make cement blocks | Village youth | February 2024 | Complete |
Lay foundation and build selling area & store walls | Mason, village youth | February - April 2024 | Complete | |
Build concrete tables | Mason, village youth | April 2024 | In progress | |
2 | Build roof | Welder, village youth | April - May 2024 | In progress |
Install doors, windows | Mason, welder | May 2024 | Not started | |
Finalize work | Mason, welder | May - June 2024 | Not started | |
3 | Begin operations | Garden Committee | June 2024 | Not started |
If you’re keeping track, you’ll notice that I pushed the timeline back 1 month from before. This was because I needed to raise more money, and I failed to consider the work slowdown during the month of Ramadan. However, with Ramadan ending tomorrow (April 10th), the work progress that has already been significant will accelerate in the coming weeks. See below for photos of that progress!
Photo Gallery
Top row: photos showing the extent of the project and the initial stages of laying blocks for the foundation.
Bottom row: photos showing the completion of the store, concrete foundation, and side walls.
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Updates I – November 2023
Overview:
I have proposed building a local market within my village in order to maximize the benefits of the village’s two community gardens, providing women and their families with greater household income and improved access to fresh produce. These benefits would also extend to several surrounding villages (< 5 km radius). In total, more than 335 women from my village and no small number of women from surrounding villages will be able to buy and sell produce within the market, thereby also benefitting the 2000+ other residents of the area, more than 60% of whom are children and youth.
To accomplish this project, I reached out to friends and family (including you!) from home, raising $3,350 in the process. Thank you for your generosity!! While this was less than the desired amount, it will be enough to build a revised version of the market. The current plan is to build a 7m x 8m raised platform upon which ~8 concrete tables will be built for women to sell from. The roofing and its supports will be entirely built from iron to ensure longevity and stability, as well as to alleviate any pressure on forests. Additional space (7m x 5m) behind the market will be left for a store and minimart to be built once the community raises enough money to do so on their own.
Context:
The village in which I live and work is located in the Upper River Region of The Gambia. It is a large community of about 2000 individuals spread out over roughly 65 compounds. The village has a poverty rate approaching 80%, highlighting the need for infrastructure interventions (World Bank, The Gambia Poverty and Gender Assessment 2022). There are two (2) community gardens, both established in the early 2000s, that have contributed and continue to contribute significantly to improved incomes for women and their households and increased access to food and nutritious diets. However, since 2017, the fences for both gardens have begun failing and livestock intrusion has decimated garden production. In turn, women have lost their main form of income and families have been forced to spend more money on food, often going without fresh produce in the food bowl due to high costs.
These community gardens represent the backbone of economic opportunity in the village. While farming tends to be entirely geared toward basic food security, gardening crops provide income for household needs which include increased food security (e.g. buying rice to supplement corn or millet staples), educational opportunities (e.g. buying school uniforms and school supplies, as well as bicycles for students going to secondary school in other villages), and farming materials (e.g. tractor fees for tilling the soil before the rainy season). To that end, I have been using Peace Corps funding opportunities to work with the village to build new community garden fences employing best practices to ensure longevity and ease of repair. Once fully completed, the 335+ women of the village will be able to garden throughout the entire year without fear of livestock intrusion, thereby substantially improving their yields.
However, the village does not currently have a marketplace from which women can sell this produce. Instead, the women of the village must travel upwards of 7 km to a different village in order to sell their wares. Not only does this take away from productive work-hours and child-rearing responsibilities for the women, but it reduces the availability of fresh produce within the village. In my baseline assessment survey taken in January 2023, having a local market was the 8th most important issue to village residents, and the 5th most important issue that I could directly work on (a village water supply, electricity, and a secondary school were all ranked higher, but they all require government intervention).
Thus, building a local marketplace resolves the preexisting issue of access to markets while also amplifying the benefits of the new community garden fences. My hope is that these three projects will yield significant revenue for the village over time, as women already pay a nominal fee to use the gardens and would likewise pay a small fee to sell from the market, which could then go toward other priorities, such boreholes in the gardens or the addition of a storage room and minimart to the local market.
Anticipated Budget:
Item | Quantity | Unit Cost | Cost |
Cement | 130 | 400 | 52,000 |
Round pipe | 10 | 2500 | 25,000 |
Corrugate | 5 | 4800 | 24,000 |
40x40 angle iron | 22 | 1000 | 22,000 |
40x40 pipe | 21 | 900 | 18,900 |
10 mm rod | 30 | 450 | 13,500 |
Roofing hook | 300 | 25 | 7,500 |
Plywood | 2 | 1500 | 3,000 |
Flat wood | 6 | 450 | 2,700 |
6 mm rod | 10 | 200 | 2,000 |
1x2 wood | 4 | 150 | 600 |
Binding wire | 1 | 550 | 550 |
3 in nails | 2 | 125 | 250 |
2 in nails | 1 | 125 | 125 |
Total (materials) | - | - | < D172,125 |
Mason | 1 | ~60% of total labor cost | 27,495 |
Iron worker | 1 | ~40% of total labor cost | 18,330 |
Total (labor) | - | - | > D45,825 |
Total (all) | - | - | D217,950 |
Notes on the budget:
The budget was created by taking the total amount raised, subtracting a small amount for emergency costs, estimating the price of all materials, and then using the leftover to provide expected labor costs. Our hope is that the material costs will be lower than expected through negotiations and that the exchange rate will continue to favor the US dollar, which would allow us to boost the amount we pay the mason and the iron worker. If the emergency money is unused on this project, I expect to be able to put it toward finishing a library at the primary school in partnership with a dedicated community member.
· $3,350 x D67 / $1 (current exchange rate) = D224,450;
· Subtract D6,500 (savings for emergency costs) = D217,950;
· Subtract D172,125 (material costs) = D45,825;
· D45,825 x % labor input = mason and iron worker payments
Implementation Plan
Step | Person(s) Responsible | Timeline |
Transfer funding from US | Me | January 2024 |
Buy materials | Me & my counterpart, with assistance from mason/iron worker | January 2024 |
Make cement blocks | Village youth | February 2024 |
Build foundation | Mason, village youth | February – March 2024 |
Build roof | Iron worker, village youth | March – April 2024 |
Build concrete tables | Mason, village youth | April 2024 |
Finalize work | Mason, iron worker | April – May 2024 |
Begin operations | Garden Committee | May 2024 |
Notes on the plan: the implementation plan will not begin until I have assurances from the Peace Corps that I will receive funding for the second community garden fence. Without this, the money for this market project will need to be redirected toward that fence, as it would be premature to build a local market when only 60% of the women have a working garden space. I expect those assurances sometime in December, meaning that this project will not start until the new year.
In addition, I am giving a wide timeframe as village work seems to be much slower than I had anticipated. My hope is that this project will be done much sooner than written here, but for the sake of being conservative, I expect the project to be fully concluded by next May.
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Original Project Description – September 2023
Overview:
I am looking to raise around $4500 for a local market project in my village. The local market will be a walled and roofed structure around 30 m x 8 m*. It will house several concrete tables and a storage room/minimart. The local market will support women who want to sell their locally grown produce within the village, thereby providing economic empowerment to the women and food security to the village.
Context:
Currently, the women of this village have nowhere to sell vegetables within the village itself. They are thus forced to walk upwards of 7 km to the nearest market. Not only does this take away from productive work hours and child-rearing responsibilities for the women, but it reduces the availability of fresh produce within the village. By building a local market, the women can bring produce directly from the 2 community gardens and sell it within the village.
Impact:
This will improve the lives of the 335+ women working the community gardens, their families, and the broader village of 2000+ people. In addition, it will support nearby, small villages within a 5 km radius that are forced to walk even further to buy fresh produce or sell their wares. Finally, and more personally, it will support both me and the next Peace Corps Volunteer in purchasing fresh produce (which I have a hard time finding).
Sustainability:
The village will be responsible for building the marketplace, contributing both labor and some small supplies to the project. The final marketplace will be controlled by the village Garden Committee, which has been diligent and responsive in building new community garden fences. They will ensure that those who sell at the marketplace pay a nominal amount of their proceeds to a communal fund to be used for any inevitable repairs needed in the future.
*(April 2024 note): This was absolutely a typo. It should have been 13 m x 8 m, which has since been updated to a still significant 11 m x 7 m.