Despite all the excitement this brings to me, I always try to stay focused about why I am here and about my role overseas. A Junior Fellowship placement involves 2 main parts: 4 months overseas and then a year with my chapter after my return. For me to be here required a lot of energy and efforts from my chapter, and as such it is important for me to reflect on why I’m here. Junior Fellows have three main goals:
- Create impact overseas
- Create impact in Canada
- Accomplish their personal goals
From these 3 goals, I think the first one is the most difficult to measure because at the end of this summer, it will probably be very difficult for me to quantify my work. Four months is such a short period of time. By the end of this summer, I won’t be able to say “I helped build a well or a school” because EWB usually doesn’t conduct such projects. Even though they are important and useful, these projects often lack sustainability. For example, let’s say I am on a team responsible for building a school. At the end of the summer, I leave without knowing what will happen to it afterwards. What if there are no teachers in this district? Or if the kids are too busy helping their parents so that they can’t go to school? Will the school be maintained over the years? If yes, who will pay for that?
Sustainability is a key concept in all of EWB’s projects. We strive to build capacity within local organizations and leaders. We believe this can be achieved by trying to understand their specific situation and their livelihoods. That’s why I’m also living in a host family.
In Burkina, 80% of the population are farmers (compared to 2-3% in Canada!). This explains why EWB focuses on agriculture (along with water and sanitation).
I work at the UGCPA/BM (Union des Groupements pour la Commercialisation des Produits Agricoles de la Boucle du Mouhoun). It is a farmers’ union in charge of selling the local farmers’ products (mainly cereals) in the Mouhoun region.
The Boucle du Mouhoun is an agricultural region, referred to as Burkina’s bread basket. There are many farmers’ unions in Burkina. When a farmer is part of a union, he can get some advantages such as better prices.
Our union decided to start implementing a counselling tool called CEF (Conseil à l’Exploitation Familiale). Note that exploitation doesn’t have the same meaning in French as in English! The CEF is an approach that enables willing members to better manage their activities. However, our union is only getting started on this project (as compared to other unions in which the CEF has been in operation for many years).
Even though I’m still learning about the union’s complicated structure, I have learned that its members grow cereals (corn, sorghum, millet, etc.) As for women, they grow certified organic bissap’s (hibiscus). My role within the UGCPA is to work with these women, more particularly within the CEF.
If you would like to have more details, please let me know!
