CHICO — Above everything else, the villagers just wanted some clean water to drink.
Access to farm animals and equipment, and education for their children, were also important objectives. But when a person is thirsty, and the only water available is brown and stinky and contains God-knows-what, everything else becomes much lower on the list of priorities.
That was the situation in the western African nation of Burkina Faso, an impoverished, landlocked country of 20 million or so people — and still is, to a degree. Clean water isn’t easy for residents to get. However, thanks to the efforts of a Chico couple, clean water, self-sufficiency for women and farming families, and education have made life a bit better there.
Alfred Koala, a Burkina Faso native, and his wife, Ashley, who grew up in Oroville, operate Feeding Nations Through Education from their Chico home. Alfred Koala had come to the United States on a student visa in the early 2000s, following a dream he had experienced that told him this country was where he should be.
Ashley Koala graduated from Las Plumas High School in 2004 and moved to Chico at 19.
“I had done missionary work in South Africa,” she said, adding that she met Alfred at Chico in 2010. “We saw each other six months later, in 2011, then married in June 2012 at Neighborhood Church.”
Alfred Koala’s family had disowned him when he was 15, after he had converted to Christianity.
“I had a dream of traveling to U.S., and it caused me to follow dream to continue education,” he explained. “After I went to the U.S. embassy” — in Burkina Faso’s capital city, Ouagadougou — “to learn information, they granted me a student visa but the process took a year.”
The only catch, Koala said, was that the visa’s conditions stipulated he could only attend a governmental institution offering an ESL (English as a second language) program.
“Chico State was one of them, and it sort of popped up as a 3D movie — this was where I was supposed to go,he said. “That’s where I felt God wanted me to go.”
From there, Koala’s journey took a comedic turn. He was a small-town boy from Thyou, a village of about 8,000 people “about 100 kilometers from the capital,” he said.
“I had no clue how big the U.S. was. I thought a big city would have been where the university was,” Koala explained, based on his idea that the University of Ouagadougou was in the capital, a city of 2.5 million. “I was not a city boy. I thought Chico State would be somewhere near New York City.
“The police helped me a lot there,” he said. “I could only afford a Greyhound bus ride from New York City to Chico. It took five days, and the way I smelled…,” he recalled with a laugh.
Koala didn’t waste any time when he got here, earning two associate degrees from Butte College in 2009 and a bachelor’s degree in accounting and information systems from Chico State in 2012. He went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration from Sacramento State.
“My heart is about education. If I am going to help kids get out of poverty, to get education, I must be a role model,” Koala told the Enterprise-Record in a 2017 interview. “My education lays the foundation for the kids I am trying to help.”
Two-prong approach
The key, then, was to make education widely available — something that is universal for Americans, of course, but tricky for people facing constant food shortage (or at least insecurity) in an African nation. Government-operated elementary schools exist in Africa, but families must pay for their children to attend. Junior high schools (ages 14-18) and high schools are scarce and boarding — the only option for children who come from areas distant to the schools — is astronomically expensive.
Compound that reality with the fact that merely feeding a family was a tough proposition.
Koala’s solution had two prongs: provide the means for families to procure farm animals and equipment, and advice on caring for the animals, thus allowing them to become self-sufficient. By selling their excess produce, families could pay for their kids’ education.
That was the first effort Feeding Nations Through Education offered — its Bulls and Plows program.
“We started a program of providing bulls (two vaccinated oxen) and plows for the families in villages,” Koala said. “Instead of giving them food, we put them to work so they can feed themselves.”
Along with the oxen came a plow and a yoke, and training on animal care as well as using the equipment to maximize crop yields.
“We have 172,000 people no longer starving thanks to the program,” Koala said.
That led to Feeding Nations’ second program — establishing clean water supplies to Burkina Faso communities that needed it most.
“We were targeting the villages, which were remote and destitute. There was no clean water and people were barely making it on one meal per day,” Koala said. “There were no paved roads, no electricity.
“Unfortunately, before we started our program, people would actually drink the dirty water. I drank some as a child,” Koala said. “I’m grateful I survived; many kids did not make it. That’s when we did our second program, our clean water program.
“We drilled wells, then built concrete around them to keep out the dirt and contaminants. We taught villagers how to maintain it” by way of a trained team of maintenance workers. Koala said the wells reached a minimum of 186 feet — “some, more than that. The water we pumped out met the international standard of clean water.”
Koala said, “There are more than 116,000 people who drink from our clean water wells across 15 large villages.” The “village” label applies to places ranging in size from 3,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. It’s still not easy for everyone to get access to supplies, but the existence of clean water wells attracts people from surrounding areas.
“When we put a well in a given village, people sometimes have to go to the next village — from three miles to as much as 15 miles — for clean water,” he explained.
Further efforts
Now that survival rates had increased, by way of more-plentiful food and water supplies, it was time to begin building upon that momentum. Koala said that led to the FNTE’s third initiative — micro-finance for businesses.
That effort allowed village women to obtain the equivalent of $100 each to launch small businesses so they could augment their families’ income. When they reached the point at which they could do so, after about a year, these women would provide other women with that financial seed money to start their own businesses.
“There are 1,090 women benefiting” from the program, Koala said. “Some of them are tailors, making clothes and reselling them. Some of them are weavers, making carpeting and fabrics — and they resell (the fabrics), then tailors buy it to make into clothes.
“Some of them make soap. Some of them travel from marketplace to marketplace to resell spices,” he said.
Finally, education for as many students as possible is the theme for FNTE’s biggest program.
“We have built a middle school in (the village of) Komsilga; the school portion is completed,” Koala said. “We’re currently building dormitories, a cafeteria and a health clinic.
“We have 15 teachers, now gainfully employed, teaching 126 students” — boys and girls ages 14 to 18. “The focus is to build a centralized school. Then we plan to build a high school.”
High school graduates, as in the U.S., will be able to apply for admission at the University of Ouagadougou, though the high school will equip them to head directly into the workforce, if that is the path certain students choose.
“We do have other programs at the school, not just for those students who want to go to the university,” Koala said. “We have a computer lab, allowing us to train them in practical skills.”
For those pondering joining the workforce immediately, they can benefit from a training center, offering courses in woodworking, welding and mechanics.
In addition to the 126 attending the middle school, “we have equipped parents so they’re able to fund their own children’s education,” Koala said. “As a result of that, 900 students are in the elementary schools. So, that’s more than a thousand who would not have access to education if not for Feeding Nations Through Education.
“That is a big impact for the communities.”
Government partner
The organization’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed by the government, Koala said.
“The (Burkina Faso) government has tracked our work already by sending inspectors to villages. After those inspections, they have deemed our organization a ‘partner in development,’” Koala said. “They’ve given us a certificate, showing as a partner in the country. Now we can ship anything (manufactured) from the country, duty-free” — that is, tax-exempt.
“We’re now the same as a non-profit organization” would be in the United States.
Since FNTE is building a health clinic at the school it constructed, the government has assigned a certified nurse to work at the clinic.
“There is no other health institution in that region, so the government is sending a nurse at no cost to us, as a result of our partnership,” Koala said.
On top of that, FNTE’s reputation has drawn attention from officials in neighboring countries, such as Ghana, Liberia, Togo and Mali.
“There are people from those countries who are asking us to come and start FTNE programs in their countries,” Koala said. “That goes far to say how the impact has gone not just in Burkina Faso.”
Koala said people interested in donating to the organization can visit feedingnations.org to learn more. The site has a giving link. Donors can also mail checks to P.O. Box 4509, Chico CA 95927.
