A training programme in business skills for widows has been devised to encourage them to become self sufficient. This programme was developed by ACT partners in Burkina Faso, this programme will be used by all our partners in all our areas.
Each course consists of two days of training with a full day follow up a few months later to evaluate how the widows are putting into practice what they have learnt.
In Burkina Faso the first two day course was held in January 2003 and the follow up session was held in April. After the first two days Constantin Ouedrago, reported:
‘When we taught them about business it was so interesting that they [the widows] did not want to stop. They were eager to learn and laughed at themselves because they realized that they were doing their business wrongly. They discovered many things and are willing to practice it’.
After the follow-up session in April he wrote:
‘It was again a time of laughing. Some are good in business, some are not, but everyone has improved or has changed the bad ways they used to follow before.’
As a result of these seminars the widows in Ougadougou are forming cooperatives. The first one that is operating is growing and selling corn and beans. The widows of Bazega want to rear pigs. They have already built a pigsty.
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