A post by Ambassador Behar in Dakar, Nov. 2010

A cool breeze at the end of the day blows down the sandy slope of the village of Mbisau in Senegal. A few dozen women, who are carrying their infants tied to their backs and wearing headscarves, are working bent down in their small plots of land where they are growing organic potatoes and onions. There are 126 women in this TIPA project, which uses advanced Israeli drip irrigation and agricultural techniques. Their project is a part of a broader program of MASHAV (Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation) and the Embassy of Israel in Senegal to combat poverty. The women are pleased. The new engagement in agriculture enables them to earn much needed money and also to deal with their other tasks such as raising their children and cooking. When the sun set and shines its last golden rays for the day on the green fields, the women return home happy and with smiles on their faces.

Gideon Behar,

Ambassador

Embassy of Israel,

Dakar

Ban enlists UN school in war against poverty

“We know that investing in children and securing their rights is one of the surest ways to ending poverty. And I know that no one can better speak for young people than you,” Mr. Ban said, inviting his youthful listeners to first crouch and then rise in a symbolic gesture of the UN’s “Stand Up Against Poverty” campaign on the eve of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty".
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon used a visit to the United Nations International School in New York on Oct. 16, to rally children in the battle against extreme poverty, a scourge that afflicts over a billion people around the world.
From the website UN News Center.