Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world. Time and again, the country is rocked by terrorist attacks. This violence turns many people - especially women - into displaced persons in their own country, so-called internally displaced persons. Many widowed women flee with their children to urban areas, where they are left to fend for themselves without shelter or protection. In the capital Ouagadougou, large groups of women live in outlying neighborhoods and in the most precarious conditions. Since they come from rural areas, these women usually have little education, so they have little chance of finding work.
Cuisine sans frontières and Ferronniers sans frontières address these women in cooperation with the local organization Femmes en Marche: The Foyer FAMA is a house in Ouagadougou where the women find shelter. In the large communal kitchen, the women can feed themselves and their children. At the same time, this kitchen serves as a production facility: The women produce dishes and snacks there, which they sell in the city with so-called mobile restaurants. These are cargo bicycles that have been specially converted for this purpose. In this way, the women earn a living, can provide for themselves and their children, and can manage their lives independently in the long term. At the same time, the mobile restaurants create an exchange with the local society and thus a connection to it, because until now the women have lived separately in the outskirts of the city.
Since autumn 2022, the activities of the Foyer FAMA have been complemented by the Ferme FAMA. Located in Ziniaré, outside of Ougadougou, the three-hectare plot is used to grow vegetables and keep animals. This promotes the food sovereignty of the Foyer and improves the food security of the women through the availability of organic food.
«With Foyer FAMA, we are making a concrete contribution to the protection of vulnerable women and children in Ouagadougou.»
