by Kerstin Gossé

03 March 2009

Yako, Burkina Faso: You could call her rural Burkina Faso's volunteerism ambassador. Since March 2008, Maïmounata Ouedraogo has been one of five UNV volunteers managing the National Volunteer Programme (PNVB - Programme National de Volontariat au Burkina) in the field, a job that takes her across the country by motorbike.

Her role is to manage the new PNVB project within a pilot region in the north, and sensitize people to the power of volunteerism. She loves to promote the programme, and speaks with conviction about the importance of volunteers to Burkina.

“The benefits of volunteerism are really twofold," she says. "The volunteers gain work experience and contribute to the development of their country, and the local partners receive a useful helping hand."

The 48-year-old worked for 26 years at the Ministry of Youth and Sports before deciding to come and work as a UNV volunteer Field Worker with the PNVB. The scheme encourages young, people to contribute to the development of their country. Financed by UNV, UNDP and the Government of Burkina Faso, it encompasses 40 volunteers in the initial phase from 2006 to 2010.

"In my office in Ouagadougou," she explains, "I was feeling that I wasn't able to do much for grassroots development. Now, I feel myself useful every day. The needs are enormous in every sector of society, and volunteerism can make a real difference."

Ms. Ouedraogo is based in Yako, but the region she covers is huge. Each month, she visits nine volunteer projects that began operating in November 2008. The distance between project sites can be up to 400 kilometres. She admits that the days spent travelling make her a bit tired, especially when she rides the motorbike for mile after mile over sand.

Having a degree in sociology herself, she recognizes that she was lucky to have received an education, unlike the majority of women in Burkina Faso. All her life she has been proud to do things which men think women can't do, she says. And it is only when she dismounts her motorbike and takes off her helmet that people realize that she is not a man.

"The women look at me with huge eyes and ask how I can get onto that motorbike," Maïmounata Ouedraogo remarks. "They had only ever heard that women are born to raise children and do the cooking. I tell them that they can all do other things, as long as they are prepared to fight."