Fondation Hirondelle, in partnership with local media and youth organizations, is creating Studio Yafa in Burkina Faso. In the usual language "Yafa" means "mediation" or "finding common ground". The first radio and multimedia productions will be launched in February 2019.

A team of Burkinabe journalists, supervised and trained by Fondation Hirondelle experts, will produce weekly radio magazines, as well as videos and articles for social networks. The goal is to provide Burkinabe youth with information that meets their needs and helps them understand the context in which they live and the problems they face. Studio Yafa will also address other generations, to enable them to better understand the aspirations of youth, and create spaces of dialogue between all these components of the Burkina society.

The Burkinabè journalistic, technical and administrative team was recruited at the end of 2018 in Ouagadougou. They are currently attending training workshops set up by Fondation Hirondelle. For journalists the training combines theory, journalistic bases and ethical principles, and a strong practical component with the production of sounds, reports and programs corresponding to productions defined for the program of Studio Yafa. The Studio team will produce weekly mini-magazines in the main languages ​​of the country and a radio talk show in French. Broadcasting of the first productions will begin in February, via a network of fifteen radio partners throughout the country, as well as on social networks to reach a large part of the country's population.

The Studio Yafa project is an initiative of Fondation Hirondelle, with its Burkina Faso partners: the National Union of Free Audiovisual of Burkina Faso (UNALFA), the Burkina Union of Private Publishers of Television Services (UBESTV) and AgribusinessTV. It is financially supported by international public donors: Swedish cooperation and Swiss cooperation.