To obtain a radical change we must have the courage to invent the future. We must dare to invent the future. All that comes from the imagination of man is realizable by man. I am convinced of that. (Thomas Sankara)

Sankara took power in Burkina in 1984 and kept it until 1987, when he was murdered at the hands of a burkinabe, supported, it seems, by the French. Why was he killed?
Because his freedom of thought was inconvenient and risked upsetting the delicate equilibrium that still held together French colonialism in Africa.According to Sankara the only way to increase agricultural production, breeding and quality of life was to take advantage of the local resources:

"To consume burkinabe means to produce and to consume our raw materials in order to safeguard our currency. In as much as we ask our people to count on their own strenghts, we must enable them to develop and appreciate what they produce with their sweat".

Our plan is to create a center for the training of the youth, CENTRE GUÉLAWÉ, in Italian “Centro Ghelawe”.

The purpose of this center is to promote agriculture and livestock raising, enabling young people to be trained and able to make the best of their work, by learning techniques and methodologies that allow a full exploitation of the territory. A place where farmers and herdsmen (92% of the workforce in Burkina Faso) can learn how to accommodate their traditional knowledge with new working techniques, without using chemicals or genetically modified seeds. A place where the principles and the advantages of biological agriculture, of a responsible management of the water resources and cattle breeding can be taught.The great challenge consists in returning to cultivate and breed naturally, to obtain a better product, less expensive and at the same time more nourishing.


3D version

STRUCTURE OF THE GHELAWÉ CENTER

The center is composed of 3 main zones:

1. Training and staff
2. Breeding
3. Product processing.

The area for the training of the staff is a rectangular courtyard, whose perimeter will contain the lodgings for the students, the classrooms, the offices and the guestrooms.An entire wing of this building will be occupied by a large hall, to accommodate cultural, musical and theatrical events.Another side of the court will be dedicated to the kitchen and the canteen of the center, that will be able to accommodate up to 50 persons.An entire arm of the court will be dedicated to the laboratories of mechanics and local handicrafts where the students will be trained by qualified staff.

The part dedicated to cattle breeding consists of:

Hen house for the breeding of guinea fowl, both laying and for food
Stables with free stalling for the breeding of working donkeys
Sties with free stalling for the breeding of pigs
Common watering place
Barns for animal fodder

The stables and the hen house will have a mechanized, animal-drawn, cleaning system that will discharge to the common manure-heap, that will serve as a source of organic fertilizer for the center; the heap is on a hill, so allowing an easier manuring system.

The processing and storage unit is composed of:

30 granaries of approximately cubic metres each
6 warehouses for the storage of industrial products (approximately 12 m3 each)
1 underground cellar for the storage of perishable products (approximately 30 m3)

The processing laboratory will be a room of about 150m2, divided in 3 zones:

1. Grinder or mill: 2 stone wheels orthogonal to each other, the vertical one being movable by means of animal traction. It will be used to produce flour, oil and sugar. In order to save space the stone wheels will be interchangeable according to the kind of production.
2. Centrifuge: 2 equidistant wooden buckets placed on an animal-driven wheel. It will be used for the centrifugation and partial refining of oil.
3. Filtration tub: a tub made of stone with a pipe for collecting the oil. In this tub the centrifuged oil will undergo the second and final refining. Through the wooden tube the oil will then be poured into goatskins for storage.

The storage unit will be an equipped room of approximately 45 m2, fitted with some cheap, wooden-powered, kitchen blocks, for cookingpreserves and large tables for the preparation of products.

The entire center will be built using local materials such as earth, clay bricks and wood.

The construction of a photovoltaic system is envisaged for the heating of water and the production of electricity.In the surroundings of the center will take place the laboratory for the genetic improvement of the seeds, an experimental garden, a laboratory for fruit, flower and nursery techniques and a shelter for the self-produced agricultural tools.

GENERAL OBJECTIVES of the Center

  • Training of independent farmers whose actions can stimulate a real economic takeoff of the rural areas, for the establishment and management of companies.
  • Development of a dynamic and cheap production system based on agrobiology, cattle breeding and pisciculture.
  • Development of agricultural mechanics, product processing, commercialization and supply.
  • Determine and improve the local resources.
  • To assist the participants in the creation of small and medium agricultural enterprises, by helping them to determine the chances of success, the start-up activities, the appropriate investments and financing.
  • Creation of a regional, national and international net of companies that actively collaborate between them, exchanging information and discoveries.
  • Commercialization of typical handicraft products from Burkina Faso.

"Aid must help to eliminate aid"

That is, as the old Chinese saying goes, if you want to help someone do not give him a fish but a fishing rod.This is the objective of Centre Guélawé, that is to trigger, in the area where we are going to settle (a village called Diébougou in the province of Bougouriba in the south-west of the Burkina Faso), a sort of chain reaction which, by involving more and more young people, could become an aid to help oneself, being conscious and knowledgeable of what can be done to improve your own condition of farmer or herdsman.

"Drought is first of all the physical phenomenon when the rain does not fall. For the moment we cannot do anything about that. If it does not rain, it is not our fault. But we must at least work, study and reflect in order to forecast the periods of drought and take measures in order to always supply the population with foodand water. That means building up wheat supplies and silos, to cultivate, store water, when it rains, in appropriate dams and to carefully use it for watering, waiting for the drought. (…..) We cannot wait for the drought with folded arms ". (T. S.)

Thanks to the experience of some members of Centre Guélawé in the field of small dams for irrigation and rice-fields, we will try to make also this dream of Sankara ours, namely to be able, if not to forecast the rain, at least to store the rain water that now is wasted, so that it can be used during the periods of drought. We are also considering the possibility of digging new wells to spare burkinabe women the trouble of long and tiring walks. All that will contribute to the well-being of the locals.

 

To help the project make a bank transfer to:
Banca Popolare Etica IBAN: IT94 J050 1812 1000 0000 0114 044
BIC: CCRT IT2T 84A