Urban Gardens Bloom in Libreville

A Women's Cooperative Grows Together

The Koumpentoum women's cooperative started with a half-acre plot, a shared dream and a question nobody could answer: could a group of women grow a community's food security from scratch? Two seasons later, the answer is a thriving two-plot garden, a market stall and sixty families eating better. More than a garden: a cooperative's leap of faith In Koumpentoum, Senegal, the cooperative's 24 members had long grown food for their own households — but each household worked alone, with limited tools and no shared strategy. When Dilulu's community-garden program proposed a shared plot, collective training and pooled harvests, the members took the leap. Learning together, growing together Weekly training sessions covered the practices that made the difference: drip irrigation to stretch scarce water, crop planning to ensure year-round harvests, seed saving for independence, and cooperative bookkeeping so earnings were managed fairly and transparently. "We used to grow food alone and struggle alone. Now we grow together, sell together, and plan together. The garden is our school, our market and our meeting place."— — Fatou Diop, cooperative chair The results 24 women trained in sustainable farming techniques 2 plots under year-round cultivation 60+ families benefiting from the cooperative's harvest +35% market income through a cooperative sales stall Members have reinvested their earnings into a second plot and a seed bank that now holds local, drought-tolerant varieties. The cooperative's garden has become the community's meeting place — and its safety net. Looking ahead The cooperative's next goal is a small storage facility so surplus harvests can be preserved and sold in the dry season. What began as a leap of faith has become a model of collective resilience.

Composting Comes to Accra's Schools

In three schools across Accra, lunchtime has changed. The plates are cleaner, the scraps go into a compost bay instead of a bin, and the gardens next to the classrooms are visibly greener. What started as a composting pilot has become a school-wide movement. The challenge: school waste and tired soil Ghana's school kitchens generate tonnes of organic waste, and the gardens many schools had attempted were struggling with poor soil. The pieces were all there — waste, land and willing students — but nothing connected them. Closing the loop Dilulu's team introduced a simple circular system in each school: kitchen scraps → compost bays → enriched garden beds → fresh vegetables for school meals. Students manage the bays on a weekly rotation, and the compost is tested and applied under teacher guidance. "The students treat the compost bay like a science lab. They're the ones who notice when the pile is too dry or too wet — and they're the ones teaching the new students."— — Ama Serwaa, science teacher, Accra Measured impact 1.2 tonnes of organic waste diverted from landfill each year 2× harvest increase in school gardens 450 students trained in composting and soil care 3 schools now running self-sustaining compost programs The program's effects have moved beyond the school gate — parents report children asking for compost bins at home, and two neighbouring schools have asked to join. Looking ahead Accra's schools are proving that waste is not a problem — it is a resource waiting for a plan. Dilulu is documenting the model so it can spread to every partner school in Ghana.