Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Burkina Faso

Inauguration of the future training centre in Loumbila, Burkina Faso

A delegation from the Monaco Red Cross travelled to Loumbila, Burkina Faso, to celebrate the future opening of the Burkina Faso Red Cross multi-purpose training centre in the presence of the Prince and Princess of Monaco, the Burkina Faso President and his wife.

Monaco, 15/01/2018 – Cooperation with Burkina Faso was in the spotlight last Friday, when the Faso President, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré and Prince Albert II of Monaco, accompanied by their wives, visited and inaugurated the Loumbila multi-purpose training centre, a flagship project run by the Monaco Red Cross and the Burkina Faso Red Cross, with the support of their respective governments and various Monegasque partners.

During the visit of the royal couple to Burkina Faso, a country with which the Government of Monaco has enjoyed prolific cooperation in various sectors including health and education since 2012, the 12th January is a day which will be fondly remembered by the members of the Monaco Red Cross.

A delegation, made up of the Monaco Red Cross’s Executive Committee, ten voluntary members drawn by lot, and some of the institution’s members of staff, attended the inauguration of this centre, testimony to a world which is adapting to the contemporary requirements of sustainable development:

The centre features a 5000m2 central component from the Universal Exposition in Milan 2015 which has been reassembled on site, fully equipped bungalows at the heart of an eco-responsible project, a water rescue centre funded by the Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation, a photovoltaic field, hydraulic boreholes and a market gardening area to support the local communities and the development of green tourism.

The entire complex is located on a 6.5 hectare plot of land, close to the future international airport of Ouagadougou, the country’s capital.

Accommodation and catering activities will enable the centre to generate income for the Burkina Faso Red Cross, which has to deal with unprecedented humanitarian challenges. It also has a more direct social purpose as it will serve as a field of application for the hotel and catering sectors. It will help develop drowning prevention training for young people, community training in agro-ecological market gardening techniques, and first aid skills development for the whole West African region.

For the reader’s information, this project giving a second life to the Monaco pavilion won an award at the Universal Exposition 2015 in Milan and was presented to the curators of other countries taking part in the Universal Exposition of Astana in 2017. This marks the beginning of a new era for this type of event, because until now, very few pavilions have been built with a view to being reused subsequently.