Saoudata and "peace circles" help women in Burkina Faso
Saoudata Ouedraogo is a woman who is very committed to her community, and who is spearheading an initiative to strengthen women's resilience and their contribution to peace in the commune of Kaya.
"I am Madame Ouedraogo Saoudata, president of the women leader's network for tolerance and peace in the North-Center region, and also regional coordinator of the women of the North-Center region.
Since the beginning of the crisis, I have seen a real need to work with women on issues of tolerance, living together, social cohesion and peace in my commune. Indeed, the displacement of populations creates discomfort and requires a great deal of adaptation on the part of both the displaced and the host populations. That's why I decided to work in particular with internally displaced women by setting up "Peace Circles" with 50 women, so that they can cultivate the spirit of resilience and peace for a better way of living together in the host areas.
The implementation of the "Improving conflict prevention and security governance in Burkina Faso" project has been an essential and vital contribution to the continuation of my work with women victims of the country's security situation. Indeed, thanks to this project on security governance, I benefited from training on the Peace Circles tool and conflict transformation.
Following the training, I had a better understanding and knowledge of the "conflict sensitivity and proactivity for peace" dimension. I therefore decided to share this capacity-building initiative with 50 other women from the host community.”
This initiative thus enabled the 100 internally displaced women and women from the host community to mix. This helped them to carry out income-generating activities (IGAs) in harmony with each other, so as to contribute to the costs of their households and live with more or less dignity.
Saoudata Ouedraogo's action, praised by her community, has helped reduce latent tensions and has improved the living conditions of these women.
The project was implemented by Interpeace, with funding and technical support from the Canadian government through the Stabilization and Peace Operations Program (SPOPs). Its aim was to improve the level of security in the target regions of Sahel, East, Centre-North and Boucle de Mouhoun in Burkina Faso, through the involvement of women in particular, as part of a peacebuilding approach.
