The BARKA Foundation is a United Nations affiliated NGO based organization in the United States and Burkina Faso, West Africa. BARKA is working in partnership with an indigenous rural village in Burkina to explore low-tech, sustainable and holistic methods to permanently reverse their cycle of poverty. BARKA also works with numerous communities in the US and Canada to provide opportunities for people of all ages to become directly involved in co-creating a culture of peace through sustainable development efforts in Burkina.  Through service-learning education in the US, BARKA facilitates inspired activism by students from kindergarten to college.  BARKA has worked with John Bapst's Student Environmental Action Committee (SEAC) for the past two years on a range of local initiatives.  A recent "walk for water" in Bangor organized by SEAC garnered the attraction and endorsement of Senator Collins.  

       BARKA returns to Burkina to implement the first step of a long-term collaboration with the small village of Tantiaka (population approximately 1000).  Based on the request of women of the village, the project will address their greatest need- accessibility to clean water.  In an effort to achieve sustainable impact, the intervention will also include sanitation and hygiene education (WASH) within the local school.  All project aspects including the drilling of the well in Tantiaka will be videotaped and BARKA's co-founders will return to the US to share the results with numerous communities including local Maine stakeholders such as John Bapst High School, Wassookeag HomeSchool, Women with Wings, Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor, and Peace & Justice Center to name just a few.  "Barka" is a West African word of gratitude, blessing & reciprocity.  A gift to the BARKA Foundation is a gift to the people of Tantiaka, and a gift to the creation of a more peaceful and just future.  For more information or to make a tax-deductible donation please visit http://www.barkafoundation.org.   

       BARKA's co-founders live in unorganized territory Maine in a 16'x 24' cabin with no running water or fulltime electricity, 17 miles from the nearest telephone pole.  With the help of a Honda generator, iMac and satellite dish, they manage their international NGO within the pristine surroundings of T3ND.  They walk for water.  

       Directly from their website, "BARKA’s Co-Founders are uniquely qualified for their role to lead this organization and its ambitious mandate. For Ina & Esu Anahata, this is not a job but a calling. They are bridge builders, peacekeepers, and documentarians of the world’s endangered indigenous civilization. They both feel as though they were brought together from radically different former paths in order to align their work and lives with this purpose.  Ina & Esu didn’t choose Burkina Faso – Burkina chose them. In 2004, they met under the guidance and instruction of Malidoma Patrice Some, an initiated elder and shaman of the Dagara people of Burkina Faso. Dr. Some is a renowned authority on the indigenous paradigm and teaches about the need for westerners to learn sensitivity and practice reciprocity when entering an indigenous context."  An article from the Berkshire Record, which includes additional information about the couple and their cause, can be downloaded by clicking here.