EDUCATION
Aid to Burkina is involved in an expanding set of projects revolving around education. Education is one way in which people can escape poverty. Education leads to employment which increases personal and family income, improves health and restores a feeling of self-worth and personal achievement.
We work in conjunction with Association Dorcas de Lafiabougou, a local charity set up in Burkina Faso to help administer educational projects in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. We are privileged to work alongside them and other partners who work collaboratively to bring education to those who would otherwise have no opportunity to break out of the poverty cycle.
Aid to Burkina are involved in 4 main areas:
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Dorcas Girls
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Dorcas Boys
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Kodeni school project in conjunction with schools and churches in Folkestone, UK
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Hounde school project - a school built in a rapidly growing town where gold has been found.
Dorcas Girls
Elizabeth Oubda set up the Dorcas Centre as a facility to help women in poverty in and around the the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. From small beginnings it has grown to its present size over a number of years and now accommodates and educates over 200 young women in 3 separate year groups.
Acknowledged by the government as being a flagship project it has recently attracted attention from the media as an example of how to help care for orphans and the poor and provide them with high quality education, practically preparing them by the time they graduate to set up their own small businesses.
The 3 year course teaches the girls to read and write, to sew and weave, how to look after their children through basic health education, how to effectively grow plants for food and how to set themselves up in business. Microfinance loans are available to those who need further help to establish their young businesses.
As little as £100 a year - just over £8 per month - helps feed, clothe and educate a girl for a year. If you would like to know more about sponsoring a girl please contact us for further information here.
Dorcas Boys
In 2013 Aid to Burkina was able to buy the land and build the first workshop for the opening of the Dorcas Boy's project. Many young men from large families are unable to get any education. The family cannot afford to send them to school so the younger ones may get little or no formal education at all. Without much to occupy them they are at risk of being exploited and getting involved in begging and petty crime.
In mid-2013 Moise Oubda asked Aid to Burkina to help provide a solution to this problem by starting the first phase of the Dorcas Boy's project. About 40 boys would attend in the morning for teaching in woodwork, metalwork, electrical work and tailoring and then would play football in the afternoon.
This project was re-located in 2016 and further developed by the German charity Kinderhilfe WestAfrika who helped provide daily meals for the boys and better accommodation.
In 2017, Aid to Burkina was able to start a motorcycle repair workshop where boys would be able to learn how to repair motorbikes - the commonest form of transport in the city - and would have the opportunity to set up their own business on graduation.
If you would like to help in any way in this or other projects please get in touch with us on the contacts page.
Dorcas Gardens
In 2019 Dorcas Gardens were expanded to include a wider range of crops. These crops are cultivated by both the Dorcas girls and boys and helps to teach them how to grow crops efficiently so as to gain maximum yield. As well as learning basic agriclutural techniques these crops once harvested are used to feed both the boys and girls in the project and whatever is surplus is sold in the local market to raise funds for the Dorcas Project.
Dorcas Gardens
Harvest time
Trike donated by Aid to Burkina
Part of the Garden
Harvest time
Kodeni School
In 2014 a group of churches and schools in Folkestone launched the Kodeni School project. They set out to raise funds to build and run a school based in one of the poorest suburbs of Bobo-Dioulasso.
By 2017 two academic years were being taught in two purpose built classrooms along with an administration block, toilets and a well to provide the students with fresh drinking water. Many of the pupils come from homes that could not otherwise afford to educate their children and many of the children still have domestic responsibilities when they return home in the evenings. Despite these difficulties the school, now in its second year is producing very good work to a high standard and the pupils, moderated indirectly by teachers in the UK are making great progress.
In 2019 the third stage of the project will start when a multipurpose facility will be built acting as a school hall and church building.
If you would like to know more about this project or would like to support it please click here.
