About us
The association "Hand in Hand Burkina Faso e.V."Leave a trace as a member
Would you like to support us in our activities? Then just come and meet us at our planning meetings. he decision if we also meet onsite in Cologne will be made at short notice and the location will be sent out with the invitation. You can find out when our planning meetings are taking place under the [Vereinstermine (German) ] here on our homepage or on [Facebook].
Do you only want to support the association by making a regular donation? Then you can also become a member. With our [Newsletter] we keep you up to date.
Download a member application form here and become a member of our assosiation.
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last update: 13.02.2023
Activities of “Hand in Hand Burkina Faso e.V.”
Nothing is easy – but nothing is impossible!
‘Nothing is easy – but nothing is impossible!’ This sentence by Abdoulaye Zize Banse, Chairman of our partner organisation A.J.E.D., could not be more fitting for our work. The military officer Ibrahim Traoré has been head of state of Burkina Faso since 2022. The local population is very proud of their young president, even though there have already been around 10 assassination attempts in the few years he has been in office. Since Ibrahim Traoré took power, he has ensured that the terrorist attacks from the north have been pushed back more and more and a number of projects have been launched to strengthen the economy and infrastructure. Projects such as ours, which contribute to strengthening healthcare provision for the population, are welcomed and supported.
This is what we achieved in 2025
- In 2025, with the help of the villagers, we were able to complete the shell of the planned health centre (CSPS = Centre de santé et de promotion sociale).
- In addition, we achieved a new donation record: in 2025, we received €11,717 in donations, more than in any other year in our association’s history!
This is what we have planned for 2026
Unfortunately, our original plan to initially develop only two rooms of the CSPS and open it on a small scale cannot be implemented as such. For hygiene reasons, the entire building must be completed. Therefore, the plan had to be adjusted. Our goal is now to complete the entire building and, if possible, to open the CSPS in its entirety. To this end, the following steps are particularly necessary and will be our top priority in 2026:
- We still need approximately €11,500 to complete the building and purchase basic interior furnishings. We have submitted a project application to the Georg-Krause Foundation for €10,000 in 2025 and are awaiting a response (As of 1 January 2026). If we do not receive the necessary funds, we will try to raise the remaining amount through other sponsors and donors.
- In addition, the following points in particular still need to be clarified in detail:
- Clarification of staff financing with the city of Ouarégou and the district of Garango
- Clarification of the financing of ‘Graduité’ services during pregnancy and childbirth and for children under five years of age by the Ministry of Health in Burkina Faso
- Clarification of other organisational issues for the opening of the CSPS together with our partner association U.D.O., such as the drafting of employment contracts and terms of employment.
With combined efforts and a little luck, we could achieve our long-cherished goal of opening a health centre in Ouarégou in 2026!
You can find out more about our ‘Midwifery Centre (CSPS)’ project and its current status on our [project page].
To find out more about our activities, you can consult our accountability reports (‘Rechenschaftsberichte’ in German). All reports from previous years are available in our [Archive (german)].
Foundation of the association
After his own experience and the messages from friends and relatives about suffering and death in childbirth in his home country, Adama Bance decided in 2018 to change this situation. On 28 October 2018, the time had come: the statutes of “Hand in Hand Burkina Faso e.V.” were signed and the association was officially founded.
Articles of Association
latest update: 12.07.2020
We introduce ourselves: Our board members
Chairman – Adama Bance
Adama Bance is a father of three children and an operations manager at BUCHEN UmweltService GmbH. He is a native of Ouarégou in Burkina Faso, but has been resident in Cologne for several years with part of his family. His other family members still live in Ouarégou, which is why he has excellent contacts to this region and visits them regularly. Here in Germany, he is also networked with several Burkinabe in NRW. When his first daughter was born in the village, Adama saw for himself how much his wife had to struggle during childbirth and how bad the local medical care was. Tragically, he has also experienced several times in recent years that young women from his circle of acquaintances have died during childbirth together with their unborn babies.
vorstand@hand-in-hand-burkina-faso.de
Vice Chairwoman – Christine Masuch
Christine Masuch is a computing core developer for insurance companies and lives in Düsseldorf. During her own pregnancy she was diagnosed with placenta praevia. In this case, the placenta lies in front of the birth canal, so that without a caesarean section, mother and unborn child would bleed to death. Due to inadequate medical care, especially in sub-Saharan African countries, this unfortunately still happens very often today. Because of this experience, she wants to contribute the rest of her life that she has been gifted, so that not only she and her son are granted a life after a Planzenta Praevia. Within the association, she takes care of the general organisation and the maintenance of the association’s homepage and is the contact person for the press.
vorstand@hand-in-hand-burkina-faso.de
Treasurer – Nicole Ibsch
Nicole Ibsch is a mother of one daughter and a management consultant for IT projects in insurance companies. Her own pregnancy and birth fortunately went without complications. Nevertheless, she noticed how vulnerable and exposed one is during birth. Her empathy for families who do not have access to good health care has increased even more through this experience. That is why she would like to actively support the association and its goals.
finanzen@hand-in-hand-burkina-faso.de
Finance Assistant – Anke Tessun
Anke Tessun works for a pharmaceutical company in Leverkusen and was particularly inspired by her encounters with African colleagues there. Her appreciation for the vibrant culture, the warmth of the people and the strong sense of community has strengthened her desire to support the project to establish a birthing centre in Ouarégou. Her aim is to help ensure that mothers and children there can be cared for safely and with dignity before, during and after childbirth. As a board member and finance assistant, she actively supports the association.
finanzen@hand-in-hand-burkina-faso.de
We introduce ourselves: Our club members
Yahaya „Youl“ Samare
Yahaya Samare, known to many by his nickname ‘Youl’, is a father of three, has lived in Germany for over 20 years and works as a fitness trainer in his own EMS studio. Despite living in Germany, he remains closely connected to his homeland, Burkina Faso.
He grew up in Burkina Faso and witnessed at a young age how many women suffer during pregnancy and childbirth. These experiences have had a lasting impact on him. The birth of his daughter was particularly moving: when the contractions began, he cycled his daughter’s mother to the nearest maternity ward. When they arrived, the door was initially locked. He immediately set off to fetch the midwives. By the time they arrived, his daughter had already been born outside the building. The midwives then looked after mother and child and ensured that both were safely cared for.
This experience really drove home to him just how important good medical care is for women and newborns. That is why he is involved with Hand in Hand Burkina Faso. He is particularly passionate about women’s and families’ health, as well as improving conditions for expectant mothers. Through his work, he hopes to help ensure that future generations can start life in a safer and healthier way.
Melanie Samare
Melanie Samare is a mother of two; she lives in Cologne with her husband Youl and works alongside him at their joint EMS gym. Through her travels to Burkina Faso, she has got to know her husband’s homeland and, in the process, has also gained an insight into the realities of life for many local women and children.
Mothers’ health is particularly close to her heart because she has experienced first-hand how important good medical care is during childbirth. Both her daughters were born by caesarean section – under different medical circumstances, neither she nor her children might have survived these births unscathed. This experience fills her with great gratitude and, at the same time, makes her realise how crucial access to medical care is for women and their children.
Driven by this conviction, she is involved with Hand in Hand Burkina Faso. Her aim is to help ensure that women and families have better chances of a safe pregnancy, a protected birth and reliable healthcare.
Project Organisation Assistant, Burkina Faso – Roukietou Savadogo
Roukietou Savadogo was born and raised in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. She now lives in Biel, Switzerland. She works in accounting with several local companies and is also the founder of the Yawoto brand, a business that sells and promotes African handicrafts – particularly handcrafted items from Burkina Faso – through her shop in Biel.
Roukietou primarily supports the association with the organisation and communication with our project partners on the ground in Burkina Faso.
As a mother of three, she has had two very different experiences of motherhood. Her eldest daughter, who was born in Burkina Faso in 2011, came into the world under much more difficult and medically limited conditions. At that time, care for women during childbirth was often inadequate, even in clinics.
Later, in Switzerland, she was fortunate enough to experience a different kind of childbirth – one that is more humane, safer and more respectful of a woman’s needs. When giving birth to her youngest child, she was able to have a water birth, attended by midwives and supported by her husband. It was an experience that differed fundamentally from that in Burkina Faso.
This comparison between the two healthcare systems made a deep impression on her. She realised how important professional support, respect for women’s dignity and access to appropriate care during pregnancy and childbirth are. Giving birth should never be accompanied by fear, abandonment or avoidable suffering.
Through her involvement in the association, Roukietou Savadogo aims to help offer women, particularly young women, the opportunity to give birth in good conditions, surrounded by people who support them and care for them with dignity. Her wish is that every woman can experience the birth of her child as a moment of security, respect and happiness, no matter where she lives.
Our ambassador – Kadietou Sare
Like Adama Bance, Kadietou Sare grew up in Ouarégou in Burkina Faso, where the planned maternity ward is to be built. Kadietou Sare gave birth to two of her three children in Ouarégou and knows the problems within the health care system there first hand. She describes her experiences of this [here].
Kadietou Sare is an excellent cook. She always provides us with original African specialities and delicacies at events.
Our partner associations
Our partner association Hand in Hand Burkina Faso – branch in Burkina Faso
On April 13, 2022, we founded a partner association “Hand in Hand Burkina Faso” with a branch in Burkina Faso. The association takes care of the implementation of our projects on site in Ouarégou.
Registered office of the association: BP: 10BP 13880 Ouagadougou 10
We are also in close contact with associations in Italy that pursue similar goals to ours and have more project experience, particularly in Ouarégou. Our partner associations with whom we work closely are the following one.
A.J.E.D.: Association jeunesse engage pour le développement
In Italy, there are six associations for the individual neighbourhoods of Ouarégou. These associations are run by a large number of emigrants from Ouarégou who live there in Italy. The associations support relatives in Ouarégou in the event of illness and other difficulties and implement projects in the neighbourhoods. In addition to the neighbourhood associations in Italy, there is also the “Association jeunesse engage pour le développement”, which is a kind of “umbrella” association for Ouarégou. The association pools the activities of the neighbourhood associations and organises joint projects for the whole of Ouarégou.
U.D.O. – Union pour le Développement de Ouarégou
The activities of the A.J.E.D. association are organised locally in Ouarégou by the association ‘Union pour le Développement de Ouarégou’. You can find out more about their activities on the following Facebook page:
Friends
