"FROM THE VILLAGE, FOR THE VILLAGE AND WITH THE VILLAGE", the motto of Nongbzanga

Faced to all the difficulties they meet, the villagers of Issaogo nonetheless decided to be the main actors of their own development. Thus, they created a villagers’ association : Nongbzanga.
Then, they started numerous actions in different fields:

- Agriculture:

A PERMANENT STRUGGLE AGAINST THE LACK OF WATER AND THE DECREASE OF SOIL FERTILITY

- building of stony line in the fields to stop erosion from rainwater and to enhance infiltration of water in the soils. - building of manure pits to help fertilising the soils - implementation of "zaï" system, which consists in bringing organic matter (compost or manure) in holes where the seeds will be planted. - buying equipment: carts, barrows...

- Environment:

MAINTAINING BIODIVERSITY

 Actions of reforestation in order to recover a tree cover: 3600 trees were planted during the operation "8000 villages, 8000 forests", creation of family groves: 125 producers among which 40 women, 20 000 trees and more than 7 000 seedlings in tree nursery

- Sensitization with the approach "Communication for a Behavioral Change" (CCC) - Implementation over 15 ha of rest-rotation grazing (MED)where some rare species appeared again. The villagers actions concerning the environment were repaid by burkinabese authorities, which gave them a mark of honour for the environmental part of their development actions.

- Illetracy:

The village implemented educational groups to alow everybody in the village an access to writing, reading and calculating.

Gender and development:

The association did not want that the actions of the youngsters and women, who represent 2/3 of the community, could remain unseen. Nongbzanga thus sees to it that these people are included as social actors through: - Favoring women and young participation to the different trainings - Favoring women and young participation to the decision-taking process - Giving to women and young incentives for the access to the equipement and the participation to the programme

Center of cultural actions for development:

The villagers created a cultural center with solar equipement, 30 chairs, 5 tables and 30 basins. This room allows them to organise meetings and dancing shows with Issaogo’s dancers.

The villagers also organised groupings and other sectorial associations:

 Women group

 Young group

 Farmers and breeders group

 Association of school-children parents

 Association of school-children mothers

 Village Committee against AIDS (CVLS)

 A banking and saving section

Partnerships initiated by the villagers:

 Program for saving the environment and recovering of vegetation cover with the Canadian Support Fund to combat desertification

 The IEC/ Plea for the Environment in the city of Kaya

 The supporting Program to decentralised cultural initiatives (PSIC).

Most of the actions concerning environmental protection and education were realised thanks to the villages resources only.