Author: John Leary, Executive Director
One of my heroes is Loret Miller Ruppe, who reminded us that being at peace is not just the absence of war.
A Determined Pursuit for Change
Ndeye sought peace and independence when she pursued Trees for the Future (TREES) Technician Omar Ndao three years ago. Witnessing the health, income, and other opportunities that Forest Gardens provided, she felt inspired. She had visited Mate Mbaye in a nearby village and saw the transformation firsthand. You may recall reading about him before.
At that time, TREES had not yet reached her village. Still, she remained determined to join the program. Whenever Omar passed by on his motorcycle while visiting neighboring communities, she tried to catch his attention, but the engine’s hum often drowned out her voice.
One day, she spotted him driving by and acted. Sprinting after him, she called out. Omar laughs when recounting the moment, recalling her determined run toward him. Unsure of the situation, he instinctively sped up. Yet, she caught up and asked, “Are you Omar?”
Once she had his attention, she led him to the field inherited from her late father, pointing out the few remaining trees.
Breaking Free from a Difficult Cycle
Ndeye explained how she was fed up with years of slaving in crop fields growing peanuts, millet and maize in the “modern” way. Each year she had to work tirelessly for several months while seed and fertilizer salesmen made all the money. All she was ever left with was disappointing crop yields, scars and deaths in the family to remember the season by.
Forest Gardens for Water Conservation
For Ndeye, trees symbolize peace and independence. She longed for relief from relentless struggles — farming in a place where rain falls for less than three months a year. Freedom from exhausting maize, millet, and peanut farming became her goal. After months of clearing, burning, plowing, seeding, weeding, harvesting, and processing, she was left with depleted soil, undernourished children, and barely a dollar a day.
From the first day Omar met Ndeye, it was clear that she believed in the power of trees to change her life, and with your help she is working very hard to make it happen.
When I visited her last year with long-time donor Gwen Noyes, we watched her carry water over long distances to nurture vegetables inside her protected Forest Garden.
She checked her field daily, chasing away cattle and goats that attempted to push through the living fence. Attending every workshop, she applied newly learned skills. She even built a green wall around her field, now visible on Google Earth. Over three years, she has nurtured thriving mango and cashew trees within the fence’s protection.
A New Path Toward Independence
Ndeye is breaking free from poverty’s cycle. Instead of being trapped in an agricultural system controlled by markets, seed and fertilizer salesmen, and government policies, she grows her own nutritious food and creates economic opportunities.
She has now completed her living fence and cultivates cashew trees as a windbreak for her 300 mango trees. Beneath them, she grows vegetables, securing food for her family. Her sheep graze on nutrient-rich forage from the fodder trees in her Forest Garden.
So, as you and I celebrate Independence Day, let’s remember that independence can mean self-sufficiency as much as it means freedom. Independence from fossil fuels, independence from harmful pesticides, and independence from markets and systems that keep farmers poor and slaving on their lands to meet other people’s needs. Forest Gardens end the cycle of poverty and put families on the track toward self-sufficiency.