With a population of approximately 150,000, Tambacounda is the largest city in eastern Senegal, and the capital of the large and sparsely populated Tambacounda region. Our work in the city extends from Les Foyers de Tambacounda to the regional state hospital as well as small-scale waste cleanup, recycling, and landscaping projects.

In collaboration with the local sanitation agency, Le Korsa has distributed trash bins and dumpsters to neighborhoods and communities where they are lacking. We then work with youth groups to clean up illegal dumping sites and install play-grounds on those sites. Local welders fabricate swing sets, tetherball poles and goal posts for soccer—which also helps contribute to Tambacounda’s small businesses.

Because the city is a crossroads for truck traffic, and lacks the infrastructure to safely dispose of and recycle old tires, many tires are burned, contributing to local pollution. Le Korsa has, since September 2019, been developing multiple ways to upcycle old, used tires into products worthy of sale, such as chairs, tables, signs, lights, bed frames and art sculptures. These skills are passed on to local communities through regular workshops at schools, in which participants transform their own tires with simple materials such as house paint and rope to create tables, chairs, flower plots, and other items that are put to use.

Le Korsa is also helping local authorities to transform food waste, gathered from restaurants throughout the city of Tambacounda, into compost for the Tambacounda Women’s Association. The women use the compost in their gardens, and in doing so contribute to the city’s environmental sustainability and their own food security.

In 2019, our Tambacounda office partnered with the city’s government to launch an urban tree planting program called Appui aux Initiatives de Reboisement du Périmètre Urbain, or AIRPUR—an acronym that, in French, reads as “clean air.” Its goal is to provide more green space and environmental benefits to the city, while also involving the citizenry in the planting and care of trees, thus building community.

Together with the community we planted over 450 trees that year along Tambacounda’s streets, and distributed over 100 trees to local families to plant on their streets or in the courtyards of their homes. Each tree was watered by a neighborhood committee.

In 2020, the community planted 800 street trees, including at former dump sites that had been cleaned up through Le Korsa’s partnership with local sanitation contractor UGC. In 2021, the program continued to expand to more schools and more streets, including the first landscaped traffic circle in Tambacounda, drawing visits from the mayor and local officials. In just a few year’s time over 1500 trees have been planted in the city of Tambacounda, with more to come each year.