Project Overview
Two longtime friends, one common vision: a bakery that promotes local ingredients, sustainable practices and cultural exchange. It will be a solar powered bakery unlike any other in Burkina Faso!
Problem & Solution
Burkina Faso is in the Sahel desert where wood fuel is scarce and expensive. Issaka spends more on wood to power his traditional wood fired oven than he earns. He has been doing this his whole life and can’t get ahead.
By taking advantage of Burkina’s abundant sunshine with our Lytefire solar concentrator and baking oven, he can reduce his expenses by 80% and make a better life for himself and his children.
Project Plan
With your support, we are going to
Install a Lytefire 5 solar oven in Lâ-Todin
Train Issaka and Adama how to use Lytefire
Help develop recipes that use local ingredients like millet and sorghum
Record pics and vids of this new initiative to help them promote it
Monitor, quantify and report the carbon reduction
Plan for phase 2, where Adama will open a cultural exchange space centred around Lytefire, read more on that in "Project Background" below.
Tasty pizzas being baked cleanly with sunshine.
Project Timeline
Since we are already in operation in Burkina Faso, this project can start immediately once the crowdfunder is complete.
Weeks 1-3: Build a Lytefire solar oven for this dynamic duo!
Week 4: Install in Lâ-Todin and train Issaka and Adama
Week 5: Bake up a storm, capture pics and vids for promotion
Week 6: Spread the word far and wide!
Impact
Until now, their only option was to burn firewood on a daily basis. With Lytefire they can use solar energy.
January 2020 - Lorin Symington of team Lytefire (r.) meets Adama (m.r.), Issaka (l.) and their apprentice.
The fire is not only bad for the environment and health, it is also costly for them.
Without Lytefire, lot of wood needs to be burned for baking.
Issaka preparing the bread.
Bread is baked.
Their bread is sold on the local market.
The Lytefire Oven is as powerful as their existing solution.
With Lytefire, only direct sunlight is used.
This initiative will change Issaka and Adama’s lives. For Issaka, it will raise his profile in his community and improve possibilities for his family. For Adama, it will be a great opportunity as an artist and an aspiring public figure.
Because of reductions of wood burning this project has a direct impact on carbon emissions, as well as profitability, reducing the amount of carbon that they would normally burn to run the bakery, and will leave more cash in hand at the end of the day.
In addition, since Lâ-Todin is a crossroads market town, it will have a big impact on thousands of people who will get exposed to this powerful, sustainable technology and will help initiate a solar revolution in Burkina Faso.
Adama and Issaka have a big vision on how to transform their community. Expand the text to learn more about their deep motivation and committment to their community.
Issaka and Adama together are going to challenge unsustainable and unhealthy traditions by establishing a high visibility solar bakery at a crossroads markettown in Lâ-Todin, 2 hours from Ouagadougou. Close enough to the big city for some economic opportunity, but far enough that electricity and gas supply are extra expensive and unreliable.
This initiative is the brainchild of Adama Bafiogo, actor, activist and musician. He wants to reform the culture of bread here in Burkina Faso which is centred around the French baguette. This campaign is the first step towards opening a cultural and educational centre where people can come together around healthy food and sustainable energy to share in the rich culture of Burkina Faso.
Adama says our Lytefire solar oven is the perfect tool to launch his bread revolution because it will automatically attract many people. Then when they taste the healthy baked goods made from locally sourced ingredients like millet, sorghum, peanuts and moringa, they’ll be sure to keep coming back. Adama wants to establish this bakery close to his hometown, in partnership with his longtime friend Issaka, a professional traditional baker.
For Issaka, this is a family business. His father taught him and he wants this trade to serve young people, like it has served him. He trains young apprentices and supports them to develop the skills and to go into business for themselves.
Each month he spends more to buy fuel wood than he earns in profit. He knows the wood smoke is bad for his health and his eyes hurt because of it. Not only that but also because of the oppressive heat and the pervasive ash dust, he’s excited to try a new innovation.
He hopes it will let him get ahead in life.
Please, make a contribution to help launch the solar energy revolution in Burkina Faso! Every little bit helps. If we make our target, our team will build a Lytefire 5, install it in Lâ-Todin, equip Issaka and Adama with a more complete bakery setup and train them and their apprentices in a wider variety of baked goods so that they can take advantage of a wider
market. We’ll also work with them to market their business and create social media presence to attract tourists. The goal is to create a profitable business that grows into a cultural and educational cafe where bodies and minds are nourished by local produceand solar energy.
Crowdfunder Status
€ 5 000 raised
5 000 € goal
Help these rural Burkinabé Entrepreneurs by supporting them to:
- Get a Lytefire 5 solar oven
- Receive solar entrepreneurship training
- Take a first step towards solar energy revolution in Burkina Faso!
Support this project
Your support is made in the form of a project-tied sponsorship.
It means that after completion of the project you’ll have your name in the Lytefire construction guide and you’ll be listed on the clip we’ll make about this project.
You have a question or feedback, or want to collaborate? Contact us
