Africa : May 2006

Luck Mervil’s First Visit to Sahel

Since he first became involved with CECI in 2004, our sponsor, Luck Mervil, has returned to his native soil, Haiti, a number of times. Last March, he went to Africa for the first time on a project tour. In both Burkina Faso and Senegal, the CECI team, partners, volunteers and several communities greeted him with open arms. He’s come back even more convinced of our work's impact in the South and is very pleased with the approach we take to working with our partners.  When telling us about his journey, his enthusiastic words come tumbling out. Testimony.

“When we chose each other, CECI and I, I immediately said that I needed to see what the organization does with my own eyes, and be able to lend a hand. I wanted my testimony to come from a guy who knows what this place smells like, who stayed there and broke bread with these people, who’s seen how it really is.

My eyes take note of everything I see and my mouth carries the voice of the people I met there, to appeal to donors over here. But they’re not asking for charity. The people I've met are too proud for charity. Though I don’t want to look at them with pity, they still have crying needs--the children who work in the gold mines and the Aids orphans in Gaoua, for example. And, speaking with the women shea workers in Leo, I also realized that people really are all equal.  What do these women want? Employment, health care, access to education for their children, a social system for the underprivileged—pretty much the same things we want, here!

I spoke with village leaders who were all saying the same thing: when CECI got here, they asked us what we wanted.  They showed us things.  Now we know what to do and that stays with us.  The partners I spoke with took a radiant shine to CECI, recognizing that this partnership has changed their life. I want this recognition to be more pronounced, here. In the media, but also by business. The power of companies is very strong.”

By Myriam Fehmiu

To find out more:

Agriculture and Rural Development in Burkina Faso