SummaryA Peace Corps Volunteer and a women's group in her host community achieved the fabrication of a nutritious porridge and implementation of the porridge into the host community. The product, Muugu Ni Kung, is a mixture of millet, black eyed peas, and peanuts, providing a substitute to the daily diet of bread and rice in an impoverished and undernourished region of Senegal. The product is easily replicable throughout Senegal. The ingredients are local and there is potential for modification based on availability of ingredients in different regions. The groups making the porridge have the opportunity to run a profitable business if they take charge of the business, work together, and engage in marketing to their communities.
Context
Upon installation in her community, the first SED volunteer in Guinguineo (2005-2007) noticed the high rate of malnutrition among the inhabitants. An advocate of proper nutrition her whole life, she quickly set out to find a means to improve the problem. The Bambara neighborhood, Farabougou, is home to a groupement of 45 women who began making a delicious, nutritious porridge early in 2007. The Institute Technologie Alimentaire (ITA) in Dakar set the ingredient proportions and tested the product for proper sanitation. The product, made from millet, black eyed peas, peanuts, sugar, and iodized salt, was so popular that we quickly sold out of each batch. The duration of time from idea conception to sustainable outcome was about a year, because of many delays (due to deaths, holidays, and the search for financing). I discovered that it was best to integrate training into the production sessions.
Muugu Ni Kung is a Bambera term meaning “more than flour.” The porridge is flour-like but so much more. The Wolof terms for the ingredients are chere (millet), niebe (black eyed peas), and gerte (peanuts).
The project was suitable for several reasons. First, Bambara women already make a similar porridge for old people and children. In fact, the Bambara have a reputation for being robust because they eat porridge. In addition, the ingredients are grown locally and are readily available most of the year. Third, the women of Badéma love to work together, so the project provided a forum, an excuse, for them to gather, joke, gossip, and otherwise socialize.
The SED volunteer from 2005-2007 rallied the women, instigated the project conception, and aided in the financial upstart (equipment, sacks, labels, ITA approval, and organization of training sessions. The trainings included technical instructions relating to product production, sanitation, financial planning, costing, accounting, and marketing. The subsequent volunteer in Guinguineo from 2007-2009 helped the women find marketing channels for the product, including volunteer collaboration and radio announcements in neighboring city, Kaolack. She researched resources for the women, such as local sources for sacks and labels, and pushed the women to take hold of the project on their own and not rely on outside resources or financing.
Mamadou Wade has been the counterpart for this project. His number is 77.656.67.86; he is available for any volunteer who would be looking to perform a similar operation. ITA was a necessary institute for collaboration in terms of sanitation and ingredient proportion approval.
The Approach
 In June of 2006, the idea was adopted and the first training held in September of that year by an expert on child nutrition. The original estimate for seed funding was 309.150 CFA, but was never raised despite repeated efforts in December 2006 and January 2007 to solicit seed funding from the mayor of Guinguinéo. Therefore, the group improvised, contributing their own kitchen equipment and pooling small portions of some ingredients and sums of money to buy the other ingredients. Therefore, this project could be initiated with almost no seed funding. In January of 2007, a trial production was run for a taste test and the first production happened that March along with a series of trainings. The second production and training were in April and the third sequence was that June.
All the initial training sessions were done by the first SED volunteer in French and emphasized the feasibility phase, record keeping, costing and marketing. Mamadou Wade did the training in technical aspects of the project, including hygiene. The women already had a base knowledge in how to grind and grill millet and black eyed peas and how to de-shell and grind peanut butter.
The second SED volunteer worked with the women from February 2008 until early 2009, placing orders from other Senegal PCVs. She found a source for labels and sacks in Kaolack in July of 2009, then wrote and broadcast a radio show for the Kaolack station that September to advertise the porridge for nutritional benefits and to increase sales. That same month, a boutique owner in Kaolack agreed to buy a dozen sacks from the Guinguineo women to sell to the local community. A shipment was sent by the Guinguineo SED volunteer to the Kolda regional house via a Peace Corps car in August 2009 after hearing that the malnutrition rate there was high, hoping to spark interest with the PCVs in that region. In October of the same year, a trainee to be sent to the northern region of Senegal near Matam visited Guinguineo to learn about the porridge, as did another volunteer from Ross Bethio in May of 2009.
Results
The product is delicious and loved by all taste-testers. It has been used at baby-weighings by the neighboring health PCV in Ndiago. The 250g sacks sell for 500 cfa and the 500g sacks sell for 800 cfa. The women understand economies of scale, an important marketing tactic. The mark-up for the porridge is 50%, giving the women adequate profit to make their efforts worth-while and the opportunity to turn the profits back into he business, thus maintaining durability and sustainability. The women know that the product serves a social purpose as well as generates income, because it's good for weaning babies, for nourishing underweight toddlers, and for restoring and maintaining the health of old people and other adults. The ingredients are readily available locally most of the year and the groupement might even grow the millet and/or the black eyed peas themselves. The groupement now has equipment including long wooden work tables so that they don't have to work on the floor (which wasn't very hygienic or comfortable) and scales and a sealing machine so that they don't have to rent that equipment. In addition, the groupement has a supply of self affixing labels and plastic sacks to last them for perhaps a couple more years.
Next Steps
At the community level, keeping the women motivated proves a challenge; they must understand that this is their project and as such, need to take charge of it themselves. They should be using the profits from sales to buy more sacks and labels and replace broken equipment. They also need to take the initiative to advertise, market, and sell the porridge. People want and like it, but they must know about it and know where to buy it. The women must be motivated to go to their clients and not wait for the clients to come to them. They do not need outside funding anymore. However, for a new community looking for financial support for start-up costs and seed funding, SPA grants are a useful resource.
If the profits from the product go back into the project, productions can be continually run, making it sustainable. The ingredients are local, but at certain times of the year more expensive. The idea of storing and saving for the future could help with this problem and keep the profit margins more consistent. With the help of ITA, certain regions of Senegal could modify the project to be more compatible for their local community based on needs, desires, and available ingredients. Mamadou Wade is a good point of contact for technical and hygiene trainings, while the PCVs are the best resource for financial and marketing trainings. Once the project is started in a host community, subsequent volunteers can easily continue the project by providing follow-up trainings and moral support.
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