Exactly ten years ago, after a series of impressive trips to Senegal that I had the pleasure of accompanying, I portrayed four women who, to me, were exemplary in different areas of Senegalese women’s empowerment and commitment to independence. On a recent trip, I was able to visit two of these strong women again with the group I accompanied and to see how they have progressed over the past ten years.

Thanks to funding from the Naturefriends Offenbach, Frankfurt/Main and Wiesbaden (Germany), a new meeting of students took place in the Landscape of the Year 2018-2020 Senegal/Gambia. The first meeting already took place in 2019. In 2021, the young people met again at the Naturefriends' House in Petit Mbao, and now again in the region of the Landscape of the Year: from 24 to 26 February in Koungheul (Senegal) and from 10 to 12 March in Janjanbureh (Gambia).

It has been four years since the Landscape of the Year launch event in January 2018 and two years since the last international trip. In January 2020, we had just heard about a virus in China and hardly anyone could have guessed that this virus would still be keeping us on our toes around the world in January 2022. In January 2021, Naturefriends International (NFI) organised a virtual excursion to the Landscape of the Year (https://tourismlog.respect.at/category/virtuelle-reise-2021/). And for the end of January/beginning of February 2022, a small group got together to travel to the Landscape of the Year again, despite the still prevailing Corona conditions. Here is the report from Ingeborg Pint, who also prepared and accompanied this trip, together with Mamadou Mbodji and Djibi Seydi.

At the International Naturefriends meeting in Janjanbureh (The Gambia) in January 2020, the focus was not only on the 125th anniversary of the Naturefriends movement but also on celebrating two successful years of Landscape of the Year Senegal/The Gambia. This event was followed by a two-weeks trip to the most important venues and partners of the Landscape of the Year, which was regularly reported on in various NFI media. Many people were expressing the wish that NFI would also be able to organise such a tour in 2021, which is now regrettably not possible due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We would therefore like to offer all interested people the opportunity to join a virtual journey through the Landscape of the Year.

The Landscape of the Year Senegal/The Gambia is the first Landscape of the Year on the African continent and thus assumes a special position. As a pilot project of the Naturefriends movement, it aims to illustrate how international solidarity can be put into practice in specific activities in the region and thus be sustainably established.