In the Western world, the notion of civilization is mostly focused around technological success, but in the least developed area in the poorest country in the world (that would be Tanout, yes), you will find a world totally different from your own. Here, people have time for each other, the poor laugh and the children are full of life.

Copyright Eden Foundation

It hasn’t always been like this, for when Eden arrived in Tanout twenty years ago, the population had been struck hard by the serious droughts of the 80s, and desertification was a widespread problem. Wanting to get rid of the birds that ate their crop, farmers were cutting down their trees at an alarming rate. Hardly any new trees were established as it was generally believed to be something that only God could do. Man sowed the millet and God sowed the trees – and if they did not get any more trees, it meant that God did not want them established. A sense of resignation spread, which people – including the children – grew accustomed to.

Copyright Eden Foundation 1987

In 1987, Eden arrived and set about researching plants that could tolerate drought and give food. It took four years for the first farmers to approach Eden and ask for help. Those were nine brave pioneers who had seen the positive effects of the trees at the field station and wanted us to help them establish their own. Today, Eden has served 2,500 families in 129 villages through passive transfer alone. Passive transfer means that we never advertise our work but wait for people to see the benefits first-hand or to be convinced by a devoted Eden farmer with personal experience. When the farmers then come to us, we are ready for them and will serve them with seeds and instructions, but their own dedication is the foundation for their success.

Eden’s solution does not only offer the population a sustainable life; it gives hope and opportunities. When the millet fails and the men depart for their annual exodus, the women and children are no longer stranded in a sea of sand. Instead, there are Eden fruits to be harvested which provide them with a multitude of options. Twenty years have passed since our arrival and you find the children leading a rich life, despite growing up in the least developed area in the poorest country in the world. Here are some glimpses of their daily life; captured by our field workers in their daily work. I hope this will give you a good insight into their joy and give you a picture of the scope of their imagination, which has been fueled by the example set by their parents as they make use of their Eden trees in more ways than we imagined twenty years ago.

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In a society where everybody is needed, there is a place for children and they cannot wait to help out. Here, group activities are the norm rather than the exception, and stress is nonexistent.

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These boys are the proud caretakers of the village cows and they actually make it look easy to gallop bareback on a bull.

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Lack of money does not equal lack of resources. These Eden children exhibit their handmade toys made of thin branches, grass and discarded flip-flop shoes (note the tires on the truck).

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While the grownups are building a new mud house in the village, the children have produced their own miniature replica; with windows, an entrance to each of the two rooms and “logs” to support the roof.

Copyright Eden Foundation

Inspired by the different types of wells available in the area (it is often the young boys’ chore to fetch water at the wells), these Eden children have built their own models, which required first-hand knowledge and a lot of finesse. As our field worker walked by, these future engineers were busy trying out the most effective model.

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Picking fruit is the favourite game of the Eden children and you often find them in their parents’ fields checking on the different species’ fruiting season…

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Even fruit consumption is a group activity, and the children gather in groups to crack the nuts, after having consumed the fruit flesh. The Eden nuts are full of fats and proteins, and are an important addition to their diet. The older children share their treasures with their younger siblings, who are too small to open the nut shells themselves.

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Because their parents chose to stop cutting down their trees several years ago and to direct seed instead, the Eden children now have edible trees and bushes available to them. Twenty years have passed since Eden’s arrival to the region and this generation is facing a new future, where resignation has given way to hope and limitations have been replaced by possibilities and options.

Copyright Eden Foundation

When Eden visited the MSF [Doctors without borders] centre in Tanout, their head of operation said that the number of children treated in the Tanout area was much smaller than in the south of the country, and how she had noticed that the people of Tanout had much better coping mechanisms.

Coping mechanisms means people’s ability to fall back on alternative support systems when the main activity of their livelihood fails. They are a key element in attaining a sustainable life, but short-term aid represses these as it is easier to beg than to do something about one’s situation. It is not true that the food does not exist, nor that the food available is famine food not worthy for human beings. In the Western world however, it is hard to appreciate what one does not know and the media has belittled the local food. Many poor people now dream of rice, maize and wheat; expensive crops that do not grow naturally in Niger and which are less nutritious than millet. A lot of money is wasted when wives insist that their husbands bring them “quality food” instead of local millet and the children suffer because the quantity is less and there are not enough nutrients in what they eat.

In Tanout however, our children go out in the fields and pick fruits whenever they feel like it. Their food is varied and contains energy, vitamins, proteins and fat. There is money to be earned as the fruits are appreciated and easily sold. Because their parents chose to forgo destructive environmental habits several years ago and to start direct seeding, the younger generation now have edible trees and bushes available to them, which many others lack.

- Excerpt from the Eden Think Tank article When Endemic Malnutrition is Labeled as Famine, published on the web May 2006

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I think that anyone who struggles to understand why I go back to Niger year after year despite the lack of material comfort, need only see a glimpse of the world of the Eden children in order to see why the struggle for a sustainable solution for the poorest of the poor is worth all the hard work and dedication. For when a simple solution like Eden’s works, there is hope.