Each morning without fail, the women of Ngaye, a small village in Senegal, West Africa, gather under the shade of a large tree to weave damp sweet grass and recycled plastics into colorful, durable baskets of various shapes and sizes. It’s a 200-year-old tradition with a modern mission. The baskets, which girls as young as eight spend anywhere from 10 to 20 hours crafting individually, travel across the Atlantic and the continental U.S. in the hopes of catching the eye of patrons at the La Jolla Open Aire Farmer’s Market each Sunday. Omar Sao, founder of Sao Global Trade and an Ngaye native himself, personally sells the handcrafted utility baskets for $4 to $145 each at seven local farmer’s markets each week and uses the profits to benefit projects in his village involving such things as access to clean water, electricity and functioning schools. Sao first came to the U.S. in 2002 to study English at a language school in San Francisco. “I quickly realized this was the perfect market for the baskets,” he said. “In Senegal, we sell them on the side of the road, hoping a car might stop and buy one. Here, there is more opportunity.” In 2008, Sao relocated to San Diego for the milder weather — “more like home,” he said— to start the enterprise in earnest. He also launched a website to boost revenue through online sales. Each dollar raised, with the exception of what is necessary to cover Sao’s modest living expenses, goes toward the construction of a three-room school for the children of Ngaye and the neighboring communities of Mekhe and Ngaye-Mekhe. Though the villages lie within a half-mile of one another, local children are forced to walk 10 to 12 miles each way to the nearest schools in neighboring cities. Sao said the school would cost about $22,000 to build, including materials to provide electricity and a wireless dish for Internet access. He hopes to raise enough money by January 2011, but in a slow economy, nothing is guaranteed. “We started at a very bad time, so things didn’t go as well as we had hoped at first,” he said. “It’s getting a little better.” A good week can yield $1,500 to $2,000 in profits between six days of markets and online sales. “But there are weeks where you can work all seven markets and not even go home with $300,” Sao said. Sao visits Senegal occasionally to collect more baskets for shipment and to distribute much-needed materials like medicine, water pumps for wells and the occasional laptop to teach children basic computer skills. He said the burden of improving communities usually falls on entrepreneurial individuals like himself. “If you wait for the government to do something like bring electricity to the villages, for example, it could take 20 years,” he said. “It’s up to us to make things better.” Despite its severe shortages of basic commodities Sao — whose father and nine siblings still live in Ngaye — describes the village with warm nostalgia and hopes to return there to live someday. “It’s a very peaceful, easygoing place,” he said. “Everyone’s always together and you can stay there a year without hearing two people argue. We don’t have much, but we’re happy.” The only thing that could convince him to stay in the U.S., he said, is meeting the love of his life. “We have a belief in Africa that a man does not have the right to settle anywhere, only a woman,” he said. “If you want your woman to be happy, let her choose where she wants to live. Once she is happy, then you can live peacefully. If she is not happy, you will never be happy either.” For now, he remains committed to his goal of expanding Sao Global Trade and using the profits to better his community. He hopes to expand his business in the future to include commodities from villages in neighboring countries like Ghana, Mali, Guinea and Mauritania. “I promised them I’m going to try until my last breath to make the whole situation better for all of us,” he said. “We’ve started with the baskets, but we will bring original things from other places and everyone will benefit.” To learn more about Sao’s mission, view a schedule of the local markets or to browse the online store, visit saoglobaltrade.com or call (858) 232-9262. Sao’s baskets are also for sale at the La Jolla Open Aire Market at La Jolla Elementary School’s upper playground on the corner of Girard Avenue and Genter Street, each Sunday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.