Under study
This project is in design and seeking funding. It is not yet deployed on the ground.
Project under study — not yet deployed. In Angon, when the dry season settles in, women and girls walk for hours to harsh streams. We are designing a lever to free their time and bodies, grow high-value vegetables when prices soar in Yaoundé, and place the money in a Solidarity Fund they manage entirely.
Under studyFree women's bodies and time so they become the agents of their financial sovereignty.
In Angon, when the dry season settles in, women and girls are condemned to walk for hours to draw water from harsh streams. Their health wears down, girls drop out of school, and every income opportunity collapses—while fresh vegetable prices peak in Yaoundé.
By replacing that daily burden with a few minutes of pedal pumping on the plot, we free their time and bodies. With stored water, they grow tomatoes and chillies off-season. The money feeds a Solidarity Fund managed entirely by women—maintenance, schooling, community health—to break lasting dependence on donations. The technical kit is only a lever in service of their emancipation.
In service of that emancipation: each pilot-cluster family would receive a decentralised system for 200 m² of intensive dry-season gardening—low-tech, repairable in Angon, zero pumping from aquifers or rivers. Deployment depends on funding and a prior tenure diagnosis.
Collection starts with an agricultural shed of about 40 m²: metal roofing, local timber framing, and a drying space for harvests. Gutter screens catch leaves and debris before water enters the circuit.
A first-flush diverter automatically discards the first litres—the most loaded with dust and roof impurities. Only cleaner water then reaches the filter and cistern. No pumping from rivers or aquifers: 100% rainwater.
Water first passes through a sand filter that traps fine particles, then fills a buried masonry cistern of 45 m³, built with materials available in Angon and waterproof renders.
Burying the reserve keeps water cool, in total darkness (no algae bloom) and with almost no evaporation—critical when the dry season lasts up to four months. Each family owns its own tank: the resource is visible, measurable, and free of neighbour usage conflicts.
For gravity irrigation, water must rise from the buried cistern into a 200-litre drum set about 1.5 m high. A human-powered pedal pump does this in a few minutes a day, right on the plot.
The choice is deliberate: no thermal engine, no fuel, no imported spare parts that vanish from local markets. A blacksmith or welder can repair the pump with standard parts. Physical effort replaces carrying buckets hundreds of metres—without depending on external energy.
From the elevated drum, water passes a 130-micron screen filter that protects emitters from clogging, then feeds a low-pressure “comb” layout: a 32 mm main line serves horizontal drip tapes about 10 m long.
Flow is slow and targeted at the plant base: fewer losses, less competing weeds, and irrigation suited to 200 m² of intensive gardening. Tapes are not buried—they rest on the soil under mulch, which limits root intrusion into emitters and makes inspection and repair easier.
Under Yaoundé-region equatorial rains, at least 10 cm of mulch is not a comfort: it is a shield against battering crust. It absorbs raindrop kinetic energy, preserves infiltration, protects tapes from UV and limits dry-season evaporation.
A planned Water Pact condition: without permanent cover, the system loses efficiency. Local compost, biopesticides (e.g. neem brew) and, where context allows, indigenous trees such as the Safou tree complete the Hub—fertility, filtered shade, complementary income.
The Family Autonomy Kit
€9,500
Reference amount under study to equip one family on 200 m² of off-season gardening—infrastructure and training, not a one-off handout. Deployment conditional on funding and tenure validation.
Target pilot cluster: 5 families (~€47,500). Technical dossier, FIETS framework and M&E being prepared for funders.
Support kit preparationPower transfer
Infrastructure will be individual so each household owns the responsibility. Governance will be collective—and women-led: the five families will sign a “Water Pact” and form a cooperative.
A small share of dry-season vegetable sales will feed a Solidarity Fund managed entirely by women. They will control the budget for maintenance, children's schooling and community health—without needing a new donation for every breakdown. Selling as a group will also strengthen market prices.
Beyond the funding year, the project follows the FIETS approach: five dimensions that secure family autonomy without creating dependency.
Sales of dry-season crops—when market prices peak—feed the Solidarity Fund for pump and filter maintenance.
Families are organised as a cooperative, with ongoing support from Awaken Destiny Yaoundé, a recognised local partner rooted in Angon.
Zero pumping from natural water bodies (100% rainwater). Soils protected by mulching, zero chemical inputs—local compost and biopesticides.
Exclusively low-tech: gravity, hand pumps repairable by local welders, masonry and materials available in Angon.
End of the water chore: women's time and bodies are freed. The Solidarity Fund puts budget control in their hands—maintenance, schooling, health.
Three transfers of power: bodies freed from the chore, income controlled by women, and a fund that replaces dependence on donations.
Body & time
A few minutes of on-plot pedal pumping replace hours of walking to streams. Health, girls' schooling and the capacity to earn stop being sacrificed.
Income
Tomatoes, chillies and vegetables when prices peak in Yaoundé—dignified income earned when the market pays best, managed by those who grow.
Power
Money feeds a Solidarity Fund managed entirely by women: equipment maintenance, schooling, community health—lasting freedom from donations.
For institutional funders: one dossier. For the public: two donation levers. Gouttes d'Avenir (water) and Terres d'Avenir (land) form the Hub under study near Yaoundé — complementary, never competing.
Hub water strand · under study
Gouttes d'Avenir
End the water chore, grow off-season, put income in a women-managed fund—~€9,500 kit.
You are on this project
Hub land strand · under study
Terres d'AvenirSecure women's right to land—leases, titles, or acquisition when the plot is missing or remains precarious.
Background publication
Restoring dignity through water and land — against dry seasons
End of chores, women's economic power, secured land rights — then the low-tech lever. Framing what we are studying in Angon.
From a filter to a full kit: every amount prepares the end of the water chore for a family in Angon — once the project launches.
€50
You contribute to sand and screen filters, and to the organic mulch that will cut evaporation on the plot.
€200
You fund a human-powered pump or a stretch of the low-pressure network that will bring water to the roots.
€800
You help build the buried cistern or the catchment shed—the heart of storage and collection.
€9,500
You equip one family end to end once the project launches: catchment, storage, pumping, irrigation and training. Five kits will make the pilot cluster. For regular giving, the Circle of 5 (€5/month) also supports this work.
Prefer a different amount or monthly support? Every contribution, whatever its size, supports a family and equips a talent.
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