Coordinated by the UV professor María Jesús Bravo and the researcher of the UPV Lucila Aragó, the exhibition is formed by 36 photographs and six explanatory panels that point out the results of the project for the development cooperation ‘Formation for the entrepreneurship of women in the rural area. Gaoua, Burkina Faso”, in which have collaborated the General Foundation of the Universitat de València, Obra Social La Caixa and the Association pour la Promotion Féminine de Gaoua (APFG).

The exhibition will be completed by a talk the same day of the opening at 19 hours, by the principal of APFG, Ini Inkauroba. In her speech, Inkaouroba will show the real situation of women in Burkina Faso, as well as the work done by the association for the defence of women rights and the reinforcement of their empowerment in the southwest of the country.

From this initiative, more than three hundred women have benefit and have enhanced their training. Of this, more than a hundred have participated in the training for the entrepreneurship, and the rest are women trained to lead to come back to their small villages.

The operating area of the APFG is a poor rural area, with a shortage of basic infrastructure as for example transport or water or fuel supply for domestic use. These deficiencies come with traditions that hinder life and development of women, such as ablation, forced marriage or levirate.

Thus, the APFG, a local group of recognized standing with more that 20 years of experience, works to change and eradicate these practices, and it has already achieved significant progress. On the other hand, it deals with the training and education of women through projects like the local languages and French literacy, or training in occupations and economic management. Its activity has provided contact with organisations from other poor African countries like Senegal, Mali or Ivory Coast, with whom it shares knowledge and experience, and it carries out advice tasks.

One of the poorest countries in the world

Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to Intervida NGO, just the 16% of girls reach secondary school, a figure that leaves feminine literacy levels in critical condition. Access to the education system, lagged behind due to important structural and cultural problems, is not the same for both sexes, but women bear the brunt.

In the context of extreme poverty, one of the main causes of school drop-out, along with traditions and habits far from enhancing the educational, social and economic development of women, this one is relegated to the housework since childhood. Forced marriage and early pregnancy are some other causes that force families to take their daughters out of school.

The province of Gaoua, where the project “Training for the entrepreneurship of women in the rural field” has developed, suffers this situation and it has become the primary intervention focus of APFG.

More information:

https://apfg.wordpress.com/

www.asso-apfg.org