Celebrating Women's Day in Burkina Faso

Microstart** celebrates Women's Day in Koubri

It was Clara Zetkin who created Women's Day at the International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen in 1910, then some 60 years later, the 8th March officially became the UN's Women's Day.
This day is now a public holiday in Burkina Faso, Laos, Ukraine, Russia and many other countries. Nowadays, the 8th March is loosing its activist edge in some places like France, where husbands are urged to take their wives to Venice for a WE or to offer them a perfume, but certainly not in Burkina Faso, where the whole country prepares for weeks in advance and celebrates with numerous dances, ceremonies, speeches and round-tables about women's rights.
'Investing in girls and women for sustainable development' was this year's theme... Sadly, Burkina Faso still has some progress to make as far as gender issues are concerned, women still remain, with children, the most vulnerable group to poverty, they suffer violence of all kinds, discrimination and exclusion social. Arranged weddings, domestic violence, sexual harassment in schools, social exclusion of older women ... are only some of the many causes of suffering here for girls and women, not to forget the persistence of female circumcision, despite numerous campaigns to eradicate it.
One can't help to feel hopeful though, when seeing the Koubri women parading in their beautiful clothes, some carrying babies in their back, others proudly displaying their working tools, but all of them walking heads up before the local administrative and religious authorities and talking about self-sufficiency and education. The mayor of Ouagadougou, Mr Simon Compaore attended the event in person, so one hopes that the message of Ms. Phoebe Ouedraogo, the dynamic and charismatic head of the microfinance institution Microstart, will be heard. As the sponsor of the event, she adressed amongst others the men in power to give women more seats in local and general elections (there are for example only 3 women's councillors out of 51 in Koubri).
While on the podium, she kept quiet about the great work her MFI is doing, putting into pratice the day's slogan. Ms Ouedraogo's choice as sponsor of the event was very telling, as she and her team are helping thousands of women to come out of poverty through microfinance. Partners of Microstart are organized in groups of 5 or more and borrow amounts ranging from 5,000 to 500,000 CFA francs at a rate of 2% per month, all are encouraged to save at least 10% of the loan amount. With this method and the training offered by the institution, including a literacy program in collaboration with the FONAEF (National Fund for the Education of Girls), they can gain education, send their children to school and simply provide their families three meals a day.
The success of the day showed the impact institutions like Microstart can make to a village like Koubri. This confirms for us at EdM, the importance of supporting them behind the scenes and helping them continue to 'invest in girls and women for a sustainable development '.

** EdM met Microstart a year ago when opening up its new branch in Burkina Faso. The partnership was forged, over a shared vision of reaching out to the poorest and because the MFI needed technical support to better use their management and information systems (Loan Performer).