Collaborative Energy Research Group

Who’s shoulders am I standing?

My grandparents were farmers and village leaders who struggled to send their children to school. My grand mother went against social pressure to put my mom and her sisters to school. My mother was the first girl to go to school in her village and became one of the first female primary school teachers in my country. She and my father taught public school and adult health education in Burkina Faso. Although retired, they continue to teach in private schools and to work as tutors and mentors. My father passed away and my mother is volunteering at NPO and is a board officer at the Ouagadougou widowed woman organization.

Our family’s financial resources are scarce, fully allocated to support the cost of subsistence for the family and education (through secondary school) for my cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Blessings on the streets and from the less fortunate

I have worked with the disadvantaged peoples of my country. My main focus has been families living in poverty, as well as homeless children who live on the streets of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (2 million population). I started my work with the children by visiting with them on the streets, two to three at a time. We became friends and the group began to grow.  They told me stories without being asked, and the desire to help - to do something for them and the families they came from - grew in me. I realized that I could make a difference in their lives, and knew that I must do something more substantial. I decided that working in an existing organization in the field would give me the means to do this. I volunteered and worked with ATD Quart Monde, an international organization doing social work in Ouagadougou. The children developed goals of helping other kids understand that it is better to stay with their families in the villages, and of reconciliation with their own families. We developed curriculum and theater pieces to convey their message to other children, and traveled to outlying villages together by foot to share these lessons. I also facilitated the return of several of these children to their families, from whom they were alienated for various reasons. In some cases, reconciliation without physical return was all that was possible.

Through this work I began to realize that to really help these street children, I needed to help their families, particularly the economically disadvantaged rural families. It became obvious that the best help for them would be to somehow give them economic freedom. How could I help them to achieve this freedom?

Reciproka my solution and my passion and calling

www.reciproka.org