Projects

Peace, Water & Wisdom Concert and Festival, September 19-21 (International Day of Peace), a 3-day event in Burkina's capitol city of Ouagadougou to raise funds for the BARKA Burkina Consortium's "Clean Water for All" Initiative. This is an ambitious undertaking and taking a great deal of focus for the organization right now; Burkina is already buzzing about it. It promises to be an historic event in Burkina Faso and is also going to be linked as a "satellite stage" from a Peace Day Concert at the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing, China which will be broadcast to 2 billion people worldwide.

Walk for Water, May 9th, Monument Mountain Regional High School's 2nd annual community walk to raise awareness of water scarcity in Burkina Faso and to raise funds for the drilling of a well in La Petite.

BARKA! BURKINA, a feature-length documentary film tracing the extraordinary journey that has led to The BARKA Foundation, the Barka Burkina Consortium, and a growing grassroots phenomenon that is paving the way for a new way of being with each other in this global village.

BARKA La Petite Building an indigenous part-time home in the small bush village, known to locals as La Petite Village, or simply, "La Petite".

BARKA Burkina Consortium 7-year project to achieve MDGs in Burkina Faso by UN target date of 2015 through collaboration, ingenuity and sheer chudspa.

BARKA Berkshire County The creation of a cultural, educational and spiritual bridge between BARKA's two home bases: the Berkshires of western Massachusetts and Fada, Burkina Faso.

Women for Women: Consists of:

• "Women at the Well", a book of photographs and conversations with rural women from the African bush
• "Women's Work", a short film about the lifestyle and workstyle of indigenous women
• A micro-credit program in which western women are directly connected with indigenous women through small financial loans that enable economic and social empowerment by supporting women-owned sustainable micro-enterprises in Burkina Faso.
  

Wisdomkeeping: This is a constant through all of BARKA's projects- working with indigenous elders, recording their stories, documenting sacred wisdom, rituals, spiritual traditions and presenting them in such a way that others will be inspired to carry them forward for our children's children's children.

RECENTLY COMPLETED PROJECTS:

BARKA Pangea Day! May 10th, 2008 was the first Pangea Day. BARKA submitted a film for the festival, organized a 'Walk for Water' with Monument Mountain High School and 6 local non-profits to raise funds to drill our first well in Burkina Faso and hosted a Pangea Day screening at the renowned Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, MA.

Tibetan Lamas from Drepung Loseling in Residency @ The Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield, MA: BARKA hosted a troupe of Tibetan monks for 8 days in June and created their itinerary that included a Native American welcome ceremony, a Q & A session and kirtan at Kripalu Center, a visit and "barn blessing" at Shantigar (Jean Claude van Itallie's buddhist retreat center in Rowe), a meeting with local interfaith religious leaders, and the Lama Chopa ceremony (to honor teachers and realized masters) at Monument Mountain Regional High School. BARKA filmed 12 hours of documentary footage including their Saturday night performance at The Colonial Theatre. Stay tuned for an edited production of this amazing week. A good reminder that BARKA's interest in and dedication to indigenous spiritual traditions reaches beyond Africa.