Supported by a $10,000 grant from the Davis Projects for Peace program, Axelle Tougouma ’27 of Fada N’Gourma, Burkina Faso, will pursue a solar-powered irrigation system and deliver agricultural training for Burkinabé women refugees in Ivory Coast, aiming to combat food insecurity and foster economic independence.
Each year, Projects for Peace provides funding to 125 or more student leaders to implement innovative, community-centered, and scalable responses to the world’s most pressing issues.
Tougouma’s project supports women refugees living in Ouangolodougou, an Ivory Coast city 18 miles from the border of Burkina Faso, a conflict-ridden country in recent years.
Millions of Burkinabè, mostly women and children, have been displaced within their country, and nearly 190,000 people have sought refuge in neighboring countries, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Tougouma’s own father, who owns a business selling agricultural inputs, had to relocate his farm due to the conflict.
Tougouma’s irrigation project seeks to support and empower Burkinabé women in Ouangolodougou as they deal with economic hardship and food insecurity. But, she says, “you cannot just build an irrigation system. You need to study the soil so that you implement the best system that works with the kind of culture they have and also the kind of crops they are willing to have in the future.”
Once installed, the system will provide the women of Ouangolodougou with access to water and the ability to more efficiently grow food, both as a means of subsistence and a source of revenue. “A system of irrigation provides the opportunity to those women to have constant activities going on instead of waiting for the rainy season,” says Tougouma.
Working remotely over the summer, Tougouma will guide her project partners in the region, including an agricultural engineer based in Burkina Faso who is leading the irrigation system build-out, scheduled to be completed by August.
“My way to contribute to peace is through humanitarian action.”
Ultimately, Tougouma hopes her project creates a more resilient community. “My vision is just empowering the whole community and giving that financial autonomy to those women so that they can thrive, the family can thrive, the children can thrive.”
At Bates, Tougouma, who is a double major in mathematics and economics, has learned to combine her analytical skills with her passion for community service and engagement. In Assistant Professor of Economics Kyle Coombs’ “Data Science for Economists” course, for example, Tougouma learned to apply her economical knowledge to a real-world community engagement project completed in conjunction with the city of Lewiston.
“Bates gives you that opportunity to explore community services through your major,” Tougouma says.
In 2023, through a United World College GoMakeADifference grant, Tougouma worked with an organization that employs internally-displaced women in Burkina Faso in soap-making jobs. In 2022, she co-led a project that provided displaced women and children with essential goods, mental health activities, and skills training, such as crocheting and soap-making.
“My way to contribute to peace is through humanitarian action.”
