Greetings from the project team!

The summer has gone quickly, like always, and we have had our hands full. During this time, we have interviewed different kinds of experts and representatives from organizations that have run similar projects in Africa. Generally, we have had a good response. People we have met so far have been helpful and genuinely interested in this project. We have also got good and constructive feedback, which we really appreciate. And of course, besides the constant contacting and interviewing, we are now evaluating the different solution alternatives.

Affortable solution models by Stanford University

Extreme affordability:
http://extreme.stanford.edu/index.html

Kick off- session 19.5.

The Burkina Faso project started with a kick off session on 19.5.2010. We were grateful to have Sister Marie Koné, the head of The Sisters of Annunciation of Bobo-Dioulasso (SAB) in Burkina Faso to attend the meeting. We students had dozens of questions for Sister Marie concerning her work, their operations in Burkina Faso, the environment, conditions, needs etc. Since Sister Marie is French speaking we didn´t have common language, so were lucky to have Anne Badan and Charles Monney to support the conversation. Anne and Charles are the people behind the scenes and without them sister Marie and the project team would not have found each others. The project mentor Paula Linna and the coordinator of the student business projects Tommi Vihervaara were leading the meeting and supporting the students in our first project kick off session. In addition one of the experts, Leena Sänkiaho from the Aalto University School of Science and Technology was percent in the session.

The meeting was exciting, vibrant and also hearty but most importantly informative. Since this was probably and unfortunately the only possibility for the projects core persons to meet together and therefore it was highly important to discuss all the important details concerning the project. Even though the schedule was tight and the topics were serious, everybody truly enjoyed the meeting.

I’m sure that Sister Marie has passed on our enthusiasm and good will to the people in SAB!

Present state of the project

On the 19th of May, we had the project’s kick-off meeting:
We had the visit of Sister Marie Rose Koné. Charles Monney made her fly from Switzerland to Finland so she could meet with the team. We had prepared a list of 51 questions to ensure the sustainability of any solutions we might come up with. We are committed finding a solution to the water supply issue around Marie Rose's orphanage and schools in Dedougou and Bobo-Dioulasso.

In addition to Tommi Vihervaara's support, Paula Linna, Phd Candidate, Researcher Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility Group, at A! school of economics accepted to supervise the group during the duration of the project and will act as a tutor.

At the moment we are contacting and interviewing people: asking questions, seeking for answers, asking more questions... All in all, we are gathering background information in order to eventually find the most suitable solution possibilities for the problem.
Fortunately we are not alone in this project: we have researchers, experts and other interested people who have kindly volunteered to helps us in our task.