Mamé Ndione of Pirendery, Touba Toul, introduces herself as “Mère Mamé Ndione” to everyone. “My real name is Mamé but I go by Mère Mamé [Mum Mamé], because I’m a mother! Her family consists of 21 people living in the same household! She herself has nine children – five boys and four girls. The youngest two are teenagers and attend school, and the rest are old enough to work.
In addition to farming millet, peanuts, and hibiscus with her family, she also has a small food stand where she sells lunchtime staples in order to make a small income. She puts aside a small amount each day from her stand in order to pay for myAgro cards. The smallest card amount available is 500 CFA, but Mamé likes to save up 1000CFA at a time (it usually takes her about 10 days to do so).
She is excited about the possibility that she could increase her revenues through the program, and this is what encouraged her to sign up.In February, she finished the packet that she originally signed up for with myAgro, a 1/16 hectare packet of peanuts. She really enjoyed the savings process for the first packet so much that she is now doubling the size of the field that she plans to plant! “When I first signed up, I didn’t know that I would able to save enough money for the packet.
When asked for her impression of the program so far, given that she is another early adopter in the Touba Toul program, she said, “Sincerely, I like it a lot. It has already made life a lot easier for me.” Though she has saved before for family needs such as school fees or weddings, she says that paying through myAgro’s system is much easier than when she tried to save before.”It is very appropriate for women like me, who wouldn’t be able to come up with a large sum of money upfront to pay for inputs.”
Mamé plans to keep part of her harvest to re-plant next year, eat part of the harvest with her family, and sell the rest.” Although the program is in its first year in her community, she says, “So far, I am very happy with the program and have a lot of hope that it will grow in years to come.”
