For more than a year, violence by armed groups in northern Burkina Faso has forced more than 1.1 million people to flee to safer areas in the south, risking losing everything. This is the case of Kadigueta Barry, 34, who fled the town of Barsalogho with her husband and four children, leaving everything behind.
For more than a year, violence by armed groups in northern Burkina Faso has forced more than 1.1 million people to flee to safer areas in the south, risking losing everything. This is the case of Kadigueta Barry, 34, who fled the town of Barsalogho with her husband and four children, leaving everything behind.
Kadigueta and her family found refuge more than 70 km from Barsalogho, in the village of Sera, where the inhabitants warmly offered them shelter without even knowing them: "We have been living together in perfect harmony since our arrival," she says. It is nevertheless important for Kadigueta to rebuild her life by becoming independent again. But for a penniless breeder who has lost all her livestock, it is a tall order.
"With the profits from the sales, I buy millet to feed the whole family. We also manage to pay
for the care and school fees of our children."
Her path crossed that of the ATAD Association, which offers micro-credits to displaced women to start an income-generating activity. Kadigueta offered to take up an activity she had been doing before she fled: "With a loan of 30,000 CFA francs (US$55), I bought what I needed to cook cereal cakes that I sell at the market," she says.
This micro-investment is now having a huge impact on the lives of Kadigueta and her family: "With the profits from the sales, I buy millet to feed the whole family. We also manage to pay for the care and school fees of our children."
Little by little, the sale of pancakes has enabled her to regain her former stability: "My business quickly enabled me to buy two goats, then four. I plan to develop a small farm to enable me to return to a stable life, like the one we knew before we were displaced." Through the Sahelian Youth for Climate Action project, financed by the European Union, Oxfam and its partners are empowering young people and women in rural areas of Burkina Faso and Niger to develop climate-resilient livelihood activities.