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RESEAU MARP
Climate change is a
Christian Aid priority. It
is happening now and it is
affecting the poor first and
will affect them worst.
People who have never
benefited from
industrialisation are
suffering its
consequences.
Why is Christian
Aid supporting
Reseau MARP?
Burkina Faso is seventh from the bottom
on the UN Human Development Index
and on the front line of climate change.
The average GDP is just $1,265pa
80% of Burkinabe rely on farming and
fishing for their livelihood. They often
lack the knowledge and the country
lacks the infrastructure for them to
pursue other livelihoods.
Burkina Faso lies just south of the
Sahara, which is advancing at a rate of
300m a year, turning agricultural land
into scrub and scrub into desert.
Life expectancy is 55 years and the
average age is 16.
Zondoma
and
Nouhari
Province
Burkina
Faso
Zondoma and Nouhari
Province receive just
70cm of rain a year
and most of the last 30
years have been
classified as droughts.
Tragically, when it
does rain the water
can’t be absorbed by
the parched earth and
it floods. In 2008
10,000 ha of
agricultural land in
Zondoma and Nouhari
were destroyed.
The
solution
Establish a soil-replenishing tree nursery: with seeds, saplings
and tools provided.
Enable skills-sharing: by organising a local cereal fairs and
exchange visits to other communities.
Set up seed banks: stocked with drought resistant varieties and
managed by the communities.
Help farmers access micro-credit for income generating
projects: helping people with few assets obtain loans means they
can take the first step to working themselves out of poverty.
Assist farming diversification: demo-farms will be set up to
teach farming techniques. Selected community members will be
trained and equipped as village vaccinators for livestock.
Improve nutritional practices by establishing agreements with
the health centres, who will train community health volunteers in
basic nutrition.
Restore flooded land: young men receive two meals a day and
training in water and soil conservation and soil drainage as they
assist the regeneration of the flooded land.
Develop “inland-valleys” for rice growing and market
gardens. Reseau MARP help to negotiate land rights, purchase
and distribute building materials and provide training.
Your Help:
With your help Reseau MARP
will help communities living on
the edge move away from it.
They will be able to withstand
droughts and floods and they will
be able to stay on, and thrive in,
their land.
Thank you.