Fatimata's story
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Meet Fatimata
Fatimata, a mother of four, lives in Boulzoma in Burkina Faso. In the past, she often struggled to feed her family during the dry season as crops failed to grow and more and more trees were being cut down.
Fatimata is now working with Tree Aid to grow trees to provide nutritious food all year round.
Before the project
During the dry season, Fatimata often struggled to find work. The only work that was available to her was mining for gold but this wasn't always enough to provide for her family.
"Before I joined the project, there was not much to do in the dry season, so I would go searching for gold at mining sites but it’s a hard way to make a living. You can often work for a week without finding anything and when you do find some gold, the money you get for it hardly covers your subsistence."
"When I was growing up, there were many trees in the fields around our village. Now life is more difficult, and we are often short of good food, especially in the dry season.”
Since joining the project
Since joining a Tree Aid project, Fatimata has been planting trees to grow nutritious food. "Now I am busy in the garden with other people from my community, planting moringa and baobab trees. Their leaves are rich in nutrients, so we can eat these at home and sell some for revenue too. Now, the garden is our gold.”
These trees will provide Fatimata and her family with a stable supply of food, even when other crops fail.
Looking to the future
Fatimata is happy, knowing that the garden will not only improve her ability to care for her children, but it will also continue to grow and benefit her children in the future.
"I hope to use any extra money I earn from the garden to pay for medicine when we are ill and for my children to go to school. When they grow up I want them to work at something that benefits them, their children and their community.”
