In our Birds, Bees and Business project in Burkina Faso, we are working alongside our project partner, Tiipaalga. In this post, you can read about the project’s activities in 2024 and the impact it has had so far on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Project visit in may
Director Neera van der Geest and her local colleague Ardjouma visited the project in Burkina Faso. Together with our local project partner Tipaalga, they visited the project at various locations.
The main outcome of this visit was that, despite the unrest in the country, the project is progressing well. Women have now built 35,000 cookstoves themselves, distributed across 15,000 households.
Microcredit
As a thank you for their time and effort in making the cookstoves, the women receive a microloan, which gives them the opportunity to start other income-generating activities, such as farming or setting up a small business.
And in 2024, we’d already seen some fantastic examples: women were growing cassava, selling pots they’d painted themselves and investing in pigs.
Training
In this project, women mentor other women in building cookstoves. In 2024, no fewer than 533 new mentors were trained. The training not only gave the participants the practical skills to make the cookstoves themselves, but also the mentoring techniques to support others.
Fairtrade premium for Dê Kigsina
Dê Kigsina is the Fairtrade cooking stove cooperative within this project. The cooperative comprises 95 dedicated women who together represent no fewer than 15,000 other women. Several times a year, they meet in Po to make plans, share knowledge and take decisions.
In 2024, Dê Kigsina received its second Fairtrade premium. This is a valuable contribution that they can use, for example, for climate adaptation measures and to further strengthen their community.
