Daniel Dolo is director of the three-year-old school in the village of Kori-Maounde, Mali. The school building was constructed with donations from a French couple, and the government pays his salary (he teaches second and third grades and his assistant teaches first grade). They have about 175 students, some of whom walk several kilometers each day to attend school, and a new grade will be added each of the next three years.  Neither Daniel nor the villagers had money to buy educational materials and school supplies, so Daniel came up with the idea of creating a school garden so that he could teach his students about gardening and at the same time they could earn money to buy educational materials by selling the produce. Because the school area is frequented by livestock that seek any edible greenery in the arid landscape, a sturdy fence was necessary to make a garden possible.  The Tandana Foundation provided a grant to build the fence.  Daniel and his students have planted beets, lettuce, cabbage, sweet potatoes, green beans, cucumbers, watermelons, eggplants, banana trees, mango trees, papaya trees, and avocado trees.  The children take turns watering, using water pumped from the nearby well.  They are excited about their new garden and have elected one student to be their leader in garden activities.

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Daniel inaugurates the garden as parents look on    Girls enjoy the garden       Housseyni Napo, elected student leader,
                                                                                                  presents Tandana with four chickens