One thing that we believe is essential, particularly in areas that have been impacted by climate change, like in the Sahel where the Sahara is moving down about a kilometre per year with all the droughts and the lack of rain, is to rehabilitate the land when the donors give us the flexibility—instead of just handing out food, but actually helping work with the beneficiaries. I say this because the beneficiaries don't want to just receive food. They actually want to rehabilitate the land and strengthen their communities.
When we can come in, rehabilitate the land, put down water systems and couple that with homegrown school meals, amazing things happen. Migration drops off the chart. Teen pregnancy and marriage rates—like of 12- and 13-year-olds—drop of the chart. Recruitment by ISIS by al Qaeda, Boko Haram and al Shabaab drops off the chart. It's absolutely remarkable.
Go to my Twitter page at @WPFChief and you can see some amazing videos about the women. The women are amazing. They are so entrepreneurial. I could show you case study after case study. When we give them water systems and they're harvesting the things necessary from water, they end up not needing our support after a couple of years.
This one woman said that they were selling into the marketplace. She had bought clothes and medicines for her children and was now paying for her son's wedding. I was sitting there just thinking, wow, this is what we wanted. This was in Chad. There are many instances like it.
I could get into the details. For example, we rehabilitated over 3.5 million acres of land. When I say “we”, I mean the beneficiaries. It was land that was not cultivatable, but because of rehabilitation and working with our donors and beneficiaries, the land is now usable. People can survive and not be vulnerable to all the shock factors.