Plan Burkina Faso Progress Report 2009

GIBRALTAR MALTA

A YEAR IN

TUNISIA

MOROCCO

BURKINA FASO SUMMARY REPORT

09

ALGERIA

LIBYA

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GOOD REASONS why Plan works in Burkina Faso

Children looking after their schoolyard

• Burkina Faso is ranked as the second poorest country in the world by the UN • Fewer than half of all under ‘11’s’ go to school • Only 61% of people have safe drinking water.

Just 13% of the country has proper sanitation

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Our priorities in Burkina Faso

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• Raising the standard of children’s education NIGER

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Sanmatenga Namentenga Kourittenga

Ouagadougou

Tenkodogo Bobo-Dioulasso

• Protecting the health of mothers and children • Keeping children safe from disease through clean water and better sanitation

Lake Chad

• Working with communities to protect children and families from HIV/AIDS

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Southwest

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BURKINA FASO e

Country Office Plan Programme

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Black Volta

COTE D'IVOIRE

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“Each government member is responsible for a Ka de i Ministry – the Ministry of Sports, for example, or Health, and monitors the school’s progress in this.”

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EQUATORIAL GUINEA

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Climate: Burkina Faso has a primarily tropical climate with two very distinct seasons. In the rainy season, the country receives between 600 and 900 millimeters (24-35 inches) of rainfall,

Economy: Burkina Faso has one of the lowest GDP per capita incomes in the world: $1,200. Agriculture represents 32% of its gross domestic product and occupies 80% of the working population.

CAMEROON

Ngoko SAO TOME & PRINCIPE GABON

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Language: French, Moore, Fulani, other local languages

Harmattan, a hot dry wind Accra from the Sahara, blows.

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Population: 14.3 million

Sangha

Capital: Ouagadougou

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BURKINA FASO FACTS

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NIGERIA

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Children tend to a new well

A YEAR IN

BURKINA FASO SUMMARY REPORT

09

FOCUS ON: RAISING THE STANDARD OF CHILDREN’S EDUCATION Making a sustainable improvement to the educational prospects of children in a country as poor as Burkina Faso takes a lot. It means building new schools, repairing old ones and providing school supplies and equipment for those schools. It also means supplying bursaries to allow more girls (traditionally discriminated against) to attend school. It means working with local and national government to raise standards.

But perhaps more than any of this, it means ensuring that children themselves are consulted on the way lessons are conducted, to make sure the school is conducive to learning and gives them the education they deserve.

A VOICE FOR CHILDREN IN KOURITTENGA

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HIV/AIDS education classes are well attended

The Bigger Picture

Plan is working with children, families and whole communities to address the problems that Burkina Faso faces. This report can only tell a small part of that story. As a further insight, last year we also: • Constructed 132 school buildings to give over 16,000 children the chance of a quality education • Provided boreholes to 108 communities, giving over 29,000 people the chance of clean, safe drinking water • Distributed over 116,000 bed nets impregnated with insecticide to keep children safe from malaria, one of Burkina Faso’s biggest killers of young children • Trained over 600 women in new ways to earn an income – by making soap, for example, or pottery Your support as a sponsor is crucial to achieving these positive results. So on behalf of the communities, partner organisations, and most of all the children we work with – thank you!

“Children are brimming with ideas on how to make life better for their families, and are keen to share them.”

To learn more about Plan’s work in Burkina Faso visit plan.org.au/ourwork/westafrica/burkinafaso

Produced for Burkina Faso by the Australian National Office.

n a small classroom in rural Burkina Faso, government ministers are wrapping up important business before the end of term.

It’s their last chance to discuss progress on crucial issues like health and education.

The Minister for Latrines points out that the door locks on the latrines are broken. Others say the water jar used by pupils to wash their hands isn’t being cleaned often enough. The Prime Minister interrupts: “Why wasn’t he told about this sooner?” Others wonder how the government will pay for repairs. Eventually, they agree to use some of the funds they’ve made from selling vegetables they grow in the school garden.

By this point you might have guessed that these ‘government ministers’ aren’t professional politicians, but children. They are pupils at a small village school in Kourittenga, a province 100 miles east of the capital. But here, as in dozens of schools across the country, they are shaping the health and education of their classmates as members of a school government.

Children have ideas For children, having such influence is unusual. In many rural communities in Burkina Faso, children play very little part in community decisions and their views on how their lives should develop are rarely sought.

Many rural families have faced particular hardship over the last year. Floods during the rainy season destroyed homes, livestock and crops, leaving communities dependent on food aid.

It’s understandable that in the daily struggle just to have enough to eat, listening to children is low on the list of priorities. But wherever Plan works, we find that children are brimming with ideas on how to make life better for their families, and are keen to share them.

Government for change School is a good place to start. Working with children and their teachers, Plan has helped schools to set up school governments in a number of villages across Burkina Faso. We support them with the practical aspects of how such a government works, and with coaching in communication skills and working as a team.

To become a member of the school government, pupils must be elected by their peers. Each government member is responsible for a Ministry – the Ministry of Sports, for example, or Health, and monitors the school’s progress in this area.

Together with pupils and teachers, they look for ways to make improvements, sharing their views with their government colleagues.

The Minister for Production has a proposal for the government. He believes the pupils should grow groundnuts and beans during the holiday to supplement the food in the school canteen next term. The government agrees and decides to ask the Parents’ Association for a small plot of land to farm.

Initiatives like these are gradually helping to change the lives of children at school in Kourittenga, improving their diet, health and attendance in class.

Every success the government has gives the children who take part a little more confidence.

They understand how to communicate ideas and take action to solve problems.

By working together, they are beginning to make a real difference to other children’s lives. The lessons these ‘government ministers’ are learning now will transform their communities for years to come.

Some names have been changed for child protection and privacy purposes.

But many lack the confidence to voice their opinions, because they are seldom asked. So Plan offers training to children and young people, teaching them how to express themselves and put forward proposals for change.

plan.org.au