Burkinabe Water and Sanitation Partner Sets Up Sustainable Internet Phone Centre

The centre, located in the Bokin area in North Central Burkina, is used for Sahel Solidarité’s daily hygiene activities, but also serves as a community centre. Many residents of Bokin cannot afford to make regular telephone calls abroad. At the centre, they come in to talk to relatives by using Skype.  Residents of Bokin are assisted by Sahel Solidarité staff.

Sahel Solidarité employees also help Burkinabe abroad who want to contact their family members at the centre. They can contact the centre by phone to learn how they can get in touch with their family members through Skype.

Although Skype is a free service, those abroad are asked to pay a contribution to make sure that the centre will remain open. This money goes to equipment such as microphones and webcams and to employees who are always present to explain how the service works. Money is also used for the original water sanitation project of Sahel Solidarité.

“It’s a great initiative,” says IICD’s capacity development officer for Burkina Faso Ousseni Zongo. “I witnessed myself how an elderly villager used the service to contact her son in Japan. Because a lot of people in the Bokin area have relatives abroad and don’t know how to use Skype, the centre is very popular.”  

Sahel Solidarité is an organisation that provides water hygiene information sessions for villagers in the Bokin area. With digital cameras, employees and health volunteers go into the villages and take pictures of good and bad practices of hygiene. These pictures are used in PowerPoint slide shows that support hygiene presentations given in villages in the area.