Open Day! and Rabbit Roads

So, not much time has passed since our last blog post, but so much has happened!

As some of you may have seen on AVO's Facebook page, Saturday the 26th November was the date of AVO''s Open Day! After a veeery busy week of meetings with AVO staff, marketing trips, painting the gate, endless packaging, and lots of sweeping the courtyard, we turned up on the day with the stalls set up and ready to go!

Welcome to the Open Day!

AVO products on sale

The actual Open Day was a real success! Our DJ kept everyone in the mood for dancing with his selection of top Burkinabe Bops and there were an impressive number of products and produce including: shea butter, crisps, soap, papayas, and bissap juice! Not to mention the exotic foreign snacks prepared by the British volunteers, aka lemon cake and garlic bread. Yum! The women of AVO, th staff, and of course Mama AVO herself all worked tirelessly through the week (and many nights as well!) and then continued to push their food and drink until way past the official end time!

 All of the government officials that we invited sent representatives to attend the event, which will help to raise AVO's profile publicly as well as within the local community. Everyone who came was very supportive of AVO and its work and agreed that it played a really important role in the community. As for the volunteers we thoroughly enjoyed the whole day and despite the fact that we finished at 20:00, we signed off in spectacular fashion with an impromptu dance party with the visiting Reo volunteers! Plus, the money we raised will help to fund our Christmas party for the widows and children, including buying presents and food for the day. In the end all the hard work payed off and we cycled home tired but incredibly proud of everyone involved.

                                

This Tuesday was the 5^th of our 6 projected Awareness Raising Sessions to promote the rights of girl’s access to education and health. After 4 already thoroughly-rehearsed presentations, the session ran like a well-oiled, if not very sweaty machine as we arrived in Villy in the raging midday heat rather than the breezy 9 o’clock cool that we had originally hoped for. The turnout for Villy was lower than some of the others presentations but our information was still well received by our audience and it meant that we managed to finish our surveys in record time! As a fitting end to our final excursion to the villages, we then proceeded to get hopelessely lost along our fondly nicknamed 'Rabbit Road' (definitely unfit for anything more than rabbits!) but were luckily rescued from the expansive bush by one of the villagers and set back on the road home.

Down the Rabbit Road to Villy

By Nadia Ribot-Smith (UK Volunteer)