The first project achieves the associative goals of point 1. In fact, it is an active part in the organization and management of the Red Lodge Longhouse which is a school of leadership and potential development. It is a growth journey on the emotional, physical, mental and spiritual levels that lasts 4 years.

The training course also aims to culturally fight against ignorance, slavery, racism, superstition and prejudices to promote well-being, beauty, potential, knowledge, freedom, the right to freedom and the ultimate meaning of leadership.

The second project achieves the association’s solidarity goals. “Let’s shape the future in Burkina Faso” sees the association leading a partnership with the Technical Commercial Institute and for Surveyors “F. Niccolini ” of Volterra and the Municipality of Yargò in Burkina Faso.

The project “Let’s shape the Future in Burkina Faso” involves students and teachers of the partner school in cooperation and learning processes with students and teachers of the Higher Institute of the Municipality of Yargo (Burkina Faso). The project began in 2019 through the activation of a partnership and collaboration agreement between the association and the school and municipal institutions of Yargo.

In March 2019, a first technical/institutional meeting was organized in Burkina Faso between the president of the Red Lodge Europa association, a delegation of teachers and students from the Niccolini Institute and representatives of the educational institutions and the municipality of Yargo. On this occasion, the students of the school, in collaboration with local technicians, installed the solar panels necessary to power the classrooms of the school (without electricity) and through a participatory design action (with local students) they created a technical project of three new classrooms, a laboratory, a library and the toilets of the school complex. This active collaboration has stimulated the development of cooperation aimed at creating mutual exchanges of teachers and students to share teaching methodologies and study programs.

The installation of solar panels allows students to stay at school even after the end of lessons, as they don’t have tables to study at home. The huts where they live, inside the savannah, essentially have two, maximum three rooms, where they sleep and where they eat. The kids don’t have their own rooms, let alone furnished ones. So staying at school even in the dark is an opportunity for them to study on the few books present only at school, together with their classmates.

The design of new classrooms will allow in the future, once the funding that the Redlodge Europa association is requesting from the foundations through participation in tenders has been found, to welcome more students to school than it is currently educating. The classes are very large (70 students per class): exceeding this maximum limit is impossible by law and therefore many children do not go to school. Especially the girls remain at home. In January 2020 the school delivered 600 school books to the Municipality of Yargò, in the presence of the president of our association.

The third project in which the Redlodge Europa association is the leader is entitled “Care for plants that heal”. The president of the association met in January 2020 with the Director General of the pharmacopoeia of the Ministry of Health of Burkina Faso. The association took on the burden of finding the funding to develop an experimental field of crops for the traditional pharmacopoeia.

A field where you can experiment with the best cultivation techniques of medicinal plants for the treatment of many of the diseases that afflict the country. Currently these plants are taken from the forest where, due to uncontrolled exploitation and climate change, they are starting to become scarce. This significantly reduces the level of biodiversity and the ability of local inhabitants to take care of themselves.

In 2020 the Niccolini partner school created a well in the experimental field. The well provides water both for the village and for the future plant repopulation field which needs a solid fence. The Red Lodge Europa association is presenting the project to foundations and Rotary clubs across the country.