Friends of Burkina Faso

Friends of Burkina Faso's objective for this program service is to support as many postsecondary education/training scholarships as we have donations for each year for academically qualified young women from poor rural families to attend local universities or nursing, midwifery or primary school teacher training. Scholarships are provided through Global NEEED Burkina, a non-profit organization registered by the Government of Burkina Faso. Selection of scholarship recipients is made by Global NEEED Burkina in collaboration with the Government Department of Education. In the 11 years we have supported this program, all but four of the 216 scholarship recipients have successfully completed their training (or for those currently in training are successful in their current studies). In each of the four cases of non-completion, Global NEEED Burkina immediately worked with the educational/training institution to transfer any remaining funds to another financially needy young female student. Through Global NEEED Burkina, Friends of Burkina Faso receives from the education institutions the final year end grades for all of our scholarship recipients. In 2020, Friends of Burkina Faso donations supported the 2020-2021 school costs of 47 young women, including 10 university students, 18 midwifery students and 19 primary school teacher trainees. Scholarship funds are wired to Global NEEED Burkina on a yearly basis.

The objective of Friends of Burkina Faso financial support for the Association Appui aux Initiatives Pour la Valorisation Durable du Secteur 04 Manga is to help farmers in three comunes in south-central Burkina Faso to improve the productivity of their crops by introducing better farming techniques, seeds and fertilizers, and thus to be able to grow more food to sell and generate income and more food to store and thereby improve local food security. 2020 was our fourth year of funding this program. In the first three years, the program trained farmers in 900 households in 39 villages. A total of 6,300 people were impacted by the program. In plots treated with organic manure, yields increased by more than 50% for corn, soybean and cowpea while rice yields were up four-fold. In 2020, the project worked with farmers in an additional 15 villages. This is a local agricultural initiative begun and run by a retired government agricultural agent and colleague/counterpart of a former Peace Corps volunteer in that region of Burkina Faso.

The objective of the program service was to provide very basic food assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Burkina Faso as a result of sharply increased terrorist attacks in villages in northern and eastern Burkina Faso in early 2020 until the government of Burkina Faso and international aid organizations would be able to respond to this rapidly developing crisis. In March 2020, through Friends of Burkina Faso's network of returned Peace Corps volunteers and friends of Burkina Faso, local communities were identified that had no resources available to respond to rapidly growing populations of IDPs arriving in their communities. Friends of Burkina Faso requested and received requests for proposals from known entities from these communities. All proposals were vetted by the Friends of Burkina Faso Board of Directors and were judged in terms of the relevance and justification of the proposals and costs. The requests were for basic food supplies (largely rice and oil), buckets, and woven mats. The five organizations that were funded were required to submit to Friends of Burkina Faso receipts for all purchases made, photos of the distribution of items purchased for the IDPs, and a final report of activities. As a result of this funding, approximately 3,950 IDPs received basic food supplies for a period of 3-5 months.

Includes funding for noon meals for village girls at a secondary school; funding to further the construction of a village primary school for Fulani children; a Peace Prize awarded to an artisan center established and run by disabled people to be used to further their construction of a workshop for their members; and associated program service expenses.