Help the ladies of Goghin to go solar!

Cash is in short supply in the villages, and everyone is buying bread from the city. These dynamic women want to keep that cash in the village and sustainably earn more on top of it. With our Lytefire solar oven they’ll be able to create a thriving and profitable business.

Members of the Goghin Women’s Group gathered for the Solar Bakery project meeting.

Mariam Ilboudo, president of the Goghin Women's group.

Showing off a full bowl of Shea Butter, aka beurre de Karite

Talking about the daily chore of gathering wood... you can tell they love it.

Balls of Soumbala, a flavouring for sauce, made from néré seeds.

Proudly showing off a bar of soap made with Shea Butter. A block of soap this size costs approximately 50 cents.

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Problem & Solution

There are limited economic activities available in the villages. Given the cost of wood, the lovely ladies of Goghin women’s group can’t compete with commercially baked bread from the city. By using mirrors to concentrate the heat of the sun, and thereby save big on energy costs, they can finally slow the cash drain on their village economy.

Project Plan

Vincent Nikiema of SOS Energy Burkina with Lorin Symington of Lytefire.

This project is in collaboration with Vincent Nikiema, President of the NGO SOS Burkina Energy. Vincent is a pioneer in solar thermal in Burkina Faso and thinks our commercial scale Lytefire tech is exactly what the country needs. We’ve known Vincent for more than 10 years and we are very excited to be able to finally work with him!

With your generous support, together we are going to
 Bring a Lytefire 5 solar oven to Goghin.
 Train 20 women and 5 men how to use the Lytefire
 Train the women how to bake baguettes as well as cakes for extra income.
 Train the women in entrepreneurship best practices so they can maximise
their earnings
 Record pics and vids of this new initiative to help them promote and
market themselves

Project Timeline

Because of our presence in Burkina Faso we can launch this project as soon as the crowdfunder is complete.
 Weeks 1-3: build a Lytefire solar oven for this group of female go-getters
 Week 4: Install in Goghin and train a core group of users
 Week 5: Bake up a storm, capture pics and vids for promotion
 Week 6+7: Oversee and monitor, filling in knowledge gaps as they arise

Impact

With your support, we will be able to
 Provide jobs that pay cash to up to 20 disadvantaged women in this village 45 minutes from Ouagadougou.
 Support the 150 women who are part of the cooperative since there is a profit sharing mechanism in place.
 Help to support 750 people (estimated using a conservative 5 family beneficiaries per woman)
 Slow the cash drain (local trade deficit) in the village, thereby helping to build the local economy by ensuring that cash stays and circulates in the village (they want to save up to drill a well).
More on impact and outcomesThe geographical position of Burkina Faso makes the country particularly vulnerable to climate change. Located in the Sahel and being a landlocked country, it has suffered extreme climate fluctuations for several decades, notably droughts, floods, heat waves and strong winds.

One of the causes of desertification is the excessive cutting of wood, more than 90% of which is used as fuel; women often have to travel long distances to collect it (an average of 4 hours per day per household as reported by the women themselves). Deforestation leads to the degradation of the soil and the advance of the desert; the land is thus more vulnerable to heavy rain in the wet season and high temperatures and intense dustiness in the dry season.

Rural populations use only wood and charcoal because other sources of energy (gas, oil, etc.) are too expensive, despite the national subsidy on LPG. Most housewives use traditional fireplaces, which consume a lot of wood.

In this context, it is imperative to mobilize training and raise awareness of vulnerable groups, about alternatives to wood and charcoal.

The aim is to provide the women of Goghin with the opportunity to continue their traditional activities in the face of the challenges that arise in the fuel sector for food processing in Burkina Faso.

The impacts of the project are expected in four aspects: the ecological aspect, the economic aspect, the social aspect and the health aspect.

Ecologically, the forest cover is preserved and reconstituted naturally, regrowth of trees promotes biodiversity, carbon sinks formed by trees that have been planted are preserved. On the other hand, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced and the effects of global warming are mitigated.

On the economic level, local jobs are created, income is generated for women. The local economy is thus revitalized and food security improved.

On the social level, several aspects are important. On the one hand, the toil of gathering wood for women and girls is reduced; women can thus engage in other activities. Another important point is that the social status of women is improved thanks to the training they receive and their paid work. It is therefore easier to send children to school and access healthcare. In addition, women are better informed about the risks linked to climate change.

Finally, in terms of health, women and their children are less exposed to respiratory illnesses linked to the use of wood and charcoal.

About this Goghin Women’s Group Project

Since 2015, the Goghin Group brings together 150 active women and a hundred supporters from the rural commune of Tanghin-Dassouri in Burkina-Faso. The group does everything they can to promote socio-economic activities, protects the environment and fights poverty especially in the village but also in Tanghin Dassouri district of Kadiogo Province in general.

This project is innovative because it combines several advantages for the village of Goghin and the surrounding villages: the provision of a new and sustainable source of energy, the acquisition of new knowledge by women, the creation of income for women, the development of new business models reproducible in other villages, reducing the workload of women and children and strengthening the social and economic role of women.

It will also one of the first solar bakery in the country.