BANGRÉ PROJECT
Microcredit
The Bangré project was created in 2008 by former ICHEC Housing Project students.
After several stays in Burkina Faso, these students were moved by the North-South inequalities and felt like continuing to invest themselves in the fight for better living conditions of the populations of the South.
The objective is to reinforce the financial and technical capacities of the mothers of primary school children in the village of Nedialpoun in Burkina Faso. The idea is to make it easier for these mothers to meet the expenses and follow their children’s education.
Nédialpoun is a village in which reforestation projects have been carried out twice by the ICHEC Housing Project. The village has also benefited by the building of a micro-dam and the boring of water wells, with the support of our NGO partner Défi Belgique Afrique.
OUR OBJECTIVES
PROJECTS
Creation of a microcredit fund (2011)
The fund allows +/- 60 mothers (divided into 2 groups) to benefit every year from several micro-loans in order to set up various income generating activities: farming, rice, groundnuts, onions or beans trade, manufacturing and sale of local beverages, etc. The maximum annual amount each woman receives is 300 euros (200 000 FCFA).
The repayment rate is 100% and all the women have been able to make a profit. This allows them to meet the schooling expenses of their children, and also to finance health and household needs of the family (medicines, medical care, clothing, etc.).
Literacy campaigns
Literacy campaigns have been launched in the village to teach parents to read and write. Adult literacy rate is only 30% in Burkina Faso.
Trainings in credit management
Several women have benefited by training sessions on various aspects of management, such as enterprise and family, marketing, business cycle, purchase management, cost calculation and cash management
School cafeteria (2008)
Istallation of a school cafeteria in the village of Pamonogo in 2008
OUR VISION
We are convinced that the future of these populations goes through education and providing increased schooling for the children who will then have more assets to ensure their future and contribute to the necessary changes by becoming tomorrow’s actors in their country.
And yet, today, too many children don’t go to school because their parents can’t afford to pay the schooling expenses or because they need them to help them in their work.
Demands for micro-credits are increasing constantly:
The needs are enormous: more women want to set up activities and are therefore asking GEFED for credits.
The women’s commercial activities that are already profitable are developing and require further important investments. We want to be able to meet these needs in order to help them to ensure the durability of their activities, to be able to offer this opportunity to a greater number of people, and in this way improve their living conditions and that of the future generations.
Other additional projects are appearing:
Giving women but also young people technical training on other activities such as farming and agriculture, so that later, thanks to a microcredit, they will be able to set up their own activity equipped with the training they have received.