We slowly introduced the idea that tomatoes, spinach, eggplant and potatoes are edible. The men helped with clearing the fields and constructing buildings. But it was the managerial and cooperative skills of the women that ensured the success of all our enterprises. Today the society is divided into three thriving groups. The women organize and manage the grain banks into which the people have learned to put aside some of the millet crop each harvest, to draw it out later when needed.
Girls attend school with the boys.
The women have real power. They farm together, growing grains and vegetables on compost using the Pierre Rabhi method, devised especially for use in the Sahel. They have created an experimental orchard and their own bank for lending money for special projects. The men have an experimental flock of sheep and their own fields and gardens. We leave Ti'n Akoff for six months every year.