2021
For more than 40 years, the NGO SOS SAHEL has been working to improve the living conditions of the populations of sub-Saharan Africa. It provides special support to rural communities in Africa to help guarantee their food security. Thanks to its expertise in the field and with the help of a network of more than 1,000 actors from different and complementary backgrounds (journalists, agronomists, sociologists, etc.), SOS SAHEL works in particular in the fields of sustainable agriculture, access to water and strengthening of capacities for local actors.
As historical partner, the Foundation has been working alongside SOS SAHEL since 2015 to fight child malnutrition in Burkina Faso. In 2017, the Bel Foundation had supported the NGO in developing Nutrisco Clubs.
The project supported in 2021: the Foundation and SOS SAHEL want to strengthen the food and nutritional security of the most vulnerable populations in 9 rural communes in southeastern Senegal, by developing 8 new Nutrisco Clubs within schools.
For several years, SOS SAHEL has set up numerous Nutrisco Clubs, notably in Burkina Faso and Chad. In groups, volunteer students meet and learn good hygiene, nutrition, and agricultural practices through fun and interactive exercises. The harvests from the school gardens are used to supply the canteens with fresh fruits and vegetables. Thanks to this program, which is both theoretical and practical, the children become “little ambassadors of nutrition” and can then share their knowledge within their communities. These clubs thus represent a real educational tool in the fight against malnutrition on a large scale.
On the strength of this experience, SOS SAHEL wishes to extend this concept to new countries and has asked the Bel Foundation to set up Nutrisco Clubs in Senegal. The project aims to improve the nutrition and knowledge of the populations of 45 villages. For the next school year, 1,500 students from 9 schools will be able to discover and participate in the implementation of Nutrisco Clubs and benefit from enriched meals, thus contributing concretely to improving their learning conditions and their development.
