Kourittenga: In Kourittenga province, internally displaced women are feeding their families through sheer hard work. Hailing from various villages in the Goulmou, Nakamb e, and other regions, 45 of them have made hydroponic gardening their daily bread. We met with them to commemorate International Women's Day. This activity is carried out in the courtyard of the president of the Association of Women of Kourittenga, Marie Th er¨se Sandwidi, who is also the provincial coordinator, based in Koup ela, in sector 3.

According to Burkina Information Agency, a group of internally displaced women are diligently working in the garden. With watering cans in hand, some are nourishing the raised garden beds while others tend to seedlings. Shortly after, another team arrives with a cart carrying water barrels, a vital resource for sustaining their garden. Adjiara Sorgho, a member of the team, explains that they fetch four barrels of water daily, costing 500 CFA francs, and their group rotates every four days. The garden yields leaves such as lisambo, sorrel, and onions, which they have harvested and sold at least three times.

The leaves are marketed alongside other vegetables at Koup ela market. Mrs. Sorgho mentions that they sell with the women selling vegetables, and the prices per unit vary between 3000 and 3500 CFA francs. If there are surplus leaves, they sell them amongst themselves. For Denise Ky elem, an internally displaced woman from Boungou and a mother, this initiative supports her family entirely. Hydroponic gardening is her sole activity, ensuring food for her children, who also attend school and have necessary supplies like soap and notebooks.

Despite the successes, access to water remains a challenge. Ms. Kyelem highlights the absence of a tricycle to transport water, especially since there are elderly members in the group. However, they are grateful for the garden's productivity. A setback occurred when a colleague passed away from an illness, temporarily halting their work. Yet, they resumed with resilience and remain hopeful for assistance, particularly a tricycle for water transport.

Marie Th er¨se Sandwidi shares that the money from selling the garden's produce helps purchase food shared among the women. Despite initial suggestions to share the harvest, the women opted to retain the money for future needs. In challenging times like the 2025 rainy season, when food was scarce, their accumulated funds, combined with a donation of 200,000 CFA francs, allowed them to purchase corn, providing much-needed sustenance.

To further empower these women, the president of the Association of Women of D elwend e of Kourittenga is organizing them into a cooperative. This initiative aims to bolster approximately one hundred internally displaced women engaged in income-generating activities, including soilless gardening, traditional weaving, soap making, maize processing, and soumbala preparation.