After learning how inaccessible clean water can be for communities in Burkina Faso, students in Tulsa have partnered with Topeca Coffee Roasters to construct what they call a “water oasis.”
BY DANIEL MURAGA
BARISTA MAGAZINE ONLINE
Featured photo courtesy of the George Badiel Foundation
What to know:
- In Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West Africa, women often must walk several miles a day to access clean water
- Students at University of Tulsa have partnered with Topeca Coffee Roasters to raise funds for a “water oasis” in Burkina Faso, with bathrooms, clean water, solar panels, and school supplies for the local community
- Topeca Coffee Roasters and the students behind the fundraiser sold a coffee blend to raise funds for the George Badiel Foundation to help construct the water oasis
For many people, coffee is a daily ritual—a natural part of everyday life. And as much as clean water should also be a part of everyday life, the truth is that it isn’t easily accessible for everyone around the world.
After learning how difficult accessing clean water can be for communities in Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West Africa, students at the University of Tulsa partnered with Tulsa-based roastery Topeca Coffee to raise funds for what they call a “water oasis,” complete with bathrooms, clean drinking water, and school supplies for surrounding communities.
“We believe clean water should be accessible to everyone,” says Emma Salon, one of the students behind the fundraiser.
The organizations behind the project
Working alongside the students of University of Tulsa and Topeca Coffee is nonprofit The Empathy, Entrepreneurship, Equality Mission (TEEEM) and its partner organization, the Georgie Badiel Foundation.
Founded in 2018, TEEM connects schools with projects that cater to under-served communities in more than 10 countries, including Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Ukraine, Burkina Faso, and the United States. The George Badiel Foundation is a nonprofit organization that helps build, maintain, and renovate water wells in Burkina Faso.
Why Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West Africa, is marked by a low-income economy based solely on subsistence and livestock farming. Today, the country largely suffers from political unrest, famines, droughts, and corruption, and has endured seven coups and three attempted coups since gaining its independence from French colonization in 1960.
“After researching all these different (countries and their) backgrounds, we found Burkina Faso was the most compelling,” Emma Salon shared in an interview with News On 6. “Women in Burkina Faso have to walk miles long in search of water every morning, walk back, and they have to purify it as well. Our class really resonated with this, and one classmate even shared a personal story about how her grandparents in her home country had to walk for water.”
Creating a water oasis
After sitting with the fact that women in Burkina Faso must walk several miles each day to collect and purify water for domestic use, the students at University of Tulsa sought out to fund what they called a “water oasis,” a community site with bathrooms, water access, solar panels, and chalkboards for students in the West African country.
According to Hatcher Gates, another participating student in the project, it costs approximately $15,000 USD to construct one water oasis—and he and his classmates decided that selling coffee would be the best way to fundraise money for the construction. “Coffee offered the best balance of effort and fundraising potential,” says Hatcher.
Already, the group has managed to raise nearly $9,000, which will go directly to the Georgia Badiel Foundation—and TEEM promises to match up to $15,000.
Partnering with Topeca Coffee Roasters
For their fundraiser, the students behind the project decided to partner with a Tulsa-based, family-owned roastery, Topeca Coffee Roasters. The company is known for its seed-to-cup model which focuses on transparent coffee production, managing the process from growing, roasting, to serving, with six generations of farming expertise to boast.
To support the fundraising project, Topeca Coffee Roasters temporarily changed the name of their Zingo Espresso Blend to “Your Morning Coffee, Their Clean Water,” which is also the students’ campaign slogan.
Overall, the fundraising project has shown the power that coffee has in creating opportunities and hope for communities in need. To learn more and donate directly to the campaign, visit www.coffeeforwater.org.
Daniel Muraga (he/him) is a communications expert, researcher, writer, and editor based in Kenya with over 10 years of experience in the industry. His mission is to highlight Africa’s contributions to the realms of science, technology, innovation, culture, food, and related fields. He has done extensive research and written widely in the coffee niche for Sprudge Media, as well as in related areas for Life & Thyme and CQ Researcher, among others. When not writing, he is always outdoors communing with nature. You can find him on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.
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