Women living in the village of Daroul Khairy used to wake up early in the morning to crush rice for preparing meals, using a mortar and a pestle. That was a hard daily labor in this rice producers area located in Casamance, southern part of Senegal. Today, thanks to the Michigan-based group The Women Dorcas Circle of Lansing chaired by Ms Loretta Johnson, the sounds of mortars and pestles no longer punctuate the mornings of Daroul Khairy village

This donation is a result of a Networking facilitated by the Humphrey Fellowship Program staff at Michigan State University, between Ms Loretta Johnson and Maimouna Kebe former Humphrey fellow and current president of Ways Out Of Misery – Africa Corporation (Woom-Africa), a non-profit organization based in Florida. As a first step of this connection, Women Dorcas Circle of Lansing has offered to the women of Daroul Khairy village a decorticator that is making a difference in their lives. The machine gives a relief to more than 10,000 women, from Daroul Khairy and surroundings, who no longer need a mortar and a pestle to decorticate rice or millet seeds. Besides, the machine serves as a source of income for the Women Association in the village because those who use it pay a very small amount of money that is collected to maintain the machine and run the activities of the women association.

Aissatou Aidara, who is the President of Daroul Khairy Women Association, has expressed profound gratitude to the Women Dorcas Circle of Lansing, who, as she puts it, “have come to their rescue despite all the distance that separates the U.S and Senegal.”

This gift is a token of both the Women Dorcas Circle of Lansing’s and Woom-Africa’s willingness to support and empower women of developing countries, to fight against poverty, and to promote peace and understanding between people of different backgrounds.