les puits du desert

Our Mission

Les Puits du Desert was born from a life-changing experience. During a humanitarian raid in northern Niger, our founder, Christel Pernet, was forced to make an emergency landing in the desert. For four days, she lived alongside local nomadic families, sharing their daily life. She discovered what it truly means to live without access to water: children walking sometimes more than 20 kilometers every day to fetch it, schools that were rare and difficult to access, and women exhausted by the burden of survival. This human shock convinced her that urgent action was needed. In 2004, she founded Les Puits du Desert, in partnership with the Nigerien NGO Tidene, to respond to the essential needs expressed by the communities themselves: access to clean water, education, health, and women's empowerment. Since then, our association has been working in the Agadez region with an approach rooted in proximity, listening, and co-construction with local populations. The mission of Les Puits du Desert is to sustainably improve the living conditions of nomadic and rural populations in northern Niger, particularly in the Agadez region. These communities, mostly Tuareg, face some of the harshest living conditions in the world: - No clean water: women and children often walk hours under extreme heat to fetch unsafe water. - Food insecurity: desertification and climate change make traditional livelihoods increasingly fragile. - Limited access to health: villages are often days away from the nearest clinic. - Barriers to education: nomadic children, and especially girls, are rarely able to attend school. - Economic marginalization: women have few opportunities to earn an income or gain autonomy. We believe that water is the first step toward development. It is the foundation for health, education, food security, and economic empowerment. But beyond water, our mission is to accompany communities toward long-term resilience and dignity. Since 2004, Les Puits du Desert has worked in close and continuous partnership with Tidene, a Nigerien NGO founded the same year by leaders from the Agadez region. This partnership, in place since the very beginning, is one of the pillars of our credibility and effectiveness in the field. Tidene brings local legitimacy, field expertise, cultural understanding, and the capacity to mobilize communities even in the most remote areas. Les Puits du Desert ensures fundraising, technical and administrative support, and accountability to international partners and donors. Together, we form a strong binational alliance that combines local knowledge and international solidarity. Every project begins with listening carefully to the communities. Tidene's teams organize meetings with village chiefs, elders, women, and youth to identify priorities. Whether it is a well, a school, or a health center, the decision always comes from the people themselves. During implementation, communities are actively involved: - Villagers contribute to site preparation, transport of materials, and support to technicians. - Women are trained in gardening, food processing, and small equipment maintenance. - Local management committees are created to ensure long-term operation of wells, schools, or gardens. This participatory approach guarantees ownership and sustainability: when people help build an infrastructure, they also take responsibility for protecting it. Beyond infrastructures, we invest in training and empowerment so that projects endure: - Training water committees in maintenance and spare parts management. - Supporting teachers and parent associations to strengthen education. - Equipping health workers with skills and tools to improve healthcare. - Helping women's cooperatives develop business strategies and improve production techniques. Each project thus becomes more than a structure: it is a lever of resilience and autonomy for entire communities. Thanks to Tidene, we ensure that all our projects are adapted to the local context and respect cultural traditions: - Schools include boarding facilities so nomadic children can study. - Wells are strategically placed along pastoral transhumance routes. - Women's income-generating activities are designed to fit daily responsibilities while fostering empowerment. All decisions are taken jointly by Les Puits du Desert and Tidene. Projects are co-written, budgets reviewed together, and monitoring carried out both locally and internationally. This dual governance guarantees transparency for donors and coherence with the realities on the ground. We are convinced that sustainable development cannot be imported from outside; it must emerge from within communities themselves. In twenty years of action: - 345 wells and boreholes built, providing tens of thousands of people with clean water. - 13 schools constructed, offering an educational future to hundreds of children. - Health infrastructures established, improving access to care for isolated populations. -16+ women's cooperatives created, reinforcing women's role in the local economy and society. Our work is made possible thanks to the support of numerous individual donors, companies, foundations, and institutions in France and internationally. We maintain trusted relationships with our partners, based on financial transparency, regular reporting, and rigorous monitoring of impact. These partnerships are essential to transform ideas into lasting achievements. Our vision is simple yet ambitious: - To ensure that no family lives without safe water. - To enable every child, especially girls, to go to school and dream of a better future. - To give women the means to earn a living and be recognized as full actors in their communities. -To build resilient and autonomous communities capable of facing the challenges of climate change, poverty, and isolation. In short, our mission is not only to build wells, schools, or clinics. It is to build hope, dignity, and opportunities in one of the most challenging regions of the world.