Canadian Samaritans for Africa started a partnership with the women of the Watinooma Association in 2019 by giving the opportunity to the first cohort of 30 women to open small business in the city of Kaya in Burkina Faso.
Watinooma is a women’s association, created in November 1994 by a group of strong willing women living in Kaya in the province of Sanmatenga, about 100 km from Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso. Watinooma means “come and be happy” in Moore, the language of the Mossi tribe. Their main goal is to empower women through training and skill development of the members, to create a sustainable and durable development of the production and marketing of the local food products, allowing the members to become more independent to help their families with income generating activities and micro loans.
Since its creation, the fast growing association has encountered many successes through the development and implementation of many different initiatives not only in Kaya but in the surrounding villages such as, beef and sheep husbandry; small businesses for the youth; storage of cereals; agriculture; transformation and sale of local products. With the help of CSA, 30 women have started their own income generating activity in different areas.
The challenges of the women of Watinooma started last year with the flux of thousands of refugees in the city due to terrorist attacks in the North of the country, along with the current global pandemic. Famine, water shortage, food insecurity, increasing rate of poverty have become the difficulties the women have to overcome everyday while doing their best to keep their business and other activities running. But Watinooma Women are always hopeful that tomorrow will be better than yesterday.
