Committed to giving an entire community the keys to success

Fighting famine and protecting the environment while at the same time thriving economically are concepts that may seem contradictory to some, but for the six students who make up the Groupe de collaboration internationale de l’Université de Sherbrooke (GCIUS), they can be combined with great success. This success, which required a whole year of commitment, took the shape of a rice parboiling centre and rice husk furnaces in Burkina Faso. Thanks to their commitment, women parboilers now have a centre equipped with a depot, an area for drying the parboiled rice, latrines, a well, a building for sorting, storing and selling the rice and nine rice husk furnaces. The use of these furnaces will reduce operating costs and ensure a greater and higher quality yield. The young Québec students have thus totally transformed the rice processing industry in the town of Bama and through their commitment have succeeded in boosting the economic development of an entire community.