Clean Water for Rural Villagers in Burkina Faso

Dear BARKA Foundation Supporters,

For the past several months the BARKA staff has been hard at work planning the details of Phase Two of the project you've already donated to here on Global Giving.  BARKA's new Country Coordinator, Pauline Ducreux (see photo below), is forming partner relations on the ground in Burkina Faso and helping us to detail the expenses for the project's forthcoming activities which include:

• Installation of an irrigation system for a village market garden to bloster food security and grow surplus crops to sell at market (the system will connect to the new well we drilled last year)
• Women's empowerment through small sustainable businesses (village women are currently forming an association to manage and operate a "multi-function platform" which has a wide range of time-saving technologies including milling grains, polishing rice, crushing shea nuts, welding, and more)
• Generation of electricity through solar power to charge batteries and cell phones which are becoming more prevalent even in the bush of rural Africa
• An evening literacy program made possible by solar-powered lights (it is estimated that 1 in 1000 people in rural Burkina can read; Burkina is the most illiterate nation in the world)

BARKA's two award-winning country-based partners include Association Chant de Femmes (The Association of the Song of the Women, which works with over 250 villages in eastern Burkina) and Tin Tua (which runs literacy programs in local languages and distributes the Multi-Function Platforms).

We anticipate returning to Burkina later this year to begin implementation on this next phase of the project.  We are estimating its impact to reach beyond Tantiaka and positively benefit at least 2500 people. 

We look forward to keeping you abreast of the latest developments and give thanks to you for your continued support of this important work.  We can't do it without you!  Together, we are changing the world.

Barka,

Ina & Esu and the BARKA staff