PROLOG helps school in Africa, Pt. 3
Since my last visit to Burkina Faso, the small school had doubled its number of pupils. Now there are three women cooking for the children. We were a little disappointed to see them still cooking as they always have – on three large stones, heated by burning the branches and sticks that the children have to carry with them to school every day. This is despite the fact that we had donated a wonderful solar oven a few years ago. We wanted to help save wood and lighten the load of the schoolchildren – but this hasn’t worked out as planned. Every year, when we ask about the solar oven, it is dragged out from some dark corner and we are informed that there is not enough sun to power the oven. It seems that it takes a long time for some things to become accepted here. We have been paying for the cooks for the past 15 years, but when it comes to changing the methods for cooking the food, nothing has changed. Every year it is a different set of reasons why things haven’t changed and this year it was unfortunately down to a lack of sun!?!
We were also disappointed to see that the school is in a pretty run-down condition. The wooden ceilings, which were already rotted when we last visited, had since completely fallen off. We had visions of the children sitting in water during the rainy season. In the first year class the school has 85 pupils and between 10-12 benches, half of which were broken. Many of the children were sitting with their school books on the floor. We were greeted by a similar sight in every classroom – too few benches and dilapidated ceilings. We asked how much new school benches would cost. Maybe this is something we can help with.
This year ist he first year in which the school can offer a class education right the way through to high school level. The school’s director, who at the moment works alone with a few additional hours of assistance per week, told us much about his school. He hopes that next year, with two classes running, he will be able to work together with another teacher. He showed us the school’s kitchen: sadly there is no-one to cook and they have no money for food. The children have to go without food at school. The school also has a library, as the director proudly told us, but with no books. He explained to us that he lacks other necessary supplies such as exercise books, textbooks and pocket calculators. We will look at what we can provide when we next visit his school.
We then visited the Ayad’s Oasis Garden. Every year when we visit, we deliver seeds and gardening equipment. Here we were shown the beautifully arranged garden. Our only regret was that we were too early in the season to taste the wonderful tomatoes! Whether he saw our disappointment or not is unclear, but the impressively large aubergines that Ayad gave us to take on our journey more than made up for the lack of tomatoes! Ayada also showed us how he makes a form of diesel from his Jatropha trees. He has planted these trees around the garden and is working to grow them to maturity.
The fruit trees we planted last time we were here unfortunately didn’t survive the last rainy season. The garden was flooded for such a long time that the trees were unable to recover afterwards. Our third attempt at introducing Artemisia (sage brush), a plant with anti-malarial properties, to the region has also proved unsuccessful. We want to give it one more attempt, this time in Gorom-Gorom.
We took lots of photographs of each of the school classes during our visit and hope to use these to find sponsors for the children to cover their education costs. The community centre will also need help in the near future. Medicines, dressings, bandages and blankets are always welcome.
Since our visit, we also have some success in Germany to report. Our organisation has now been recognised and certified as a charitable organisation, which means that our donors are now able to benefit from tax reductions when they give us financial support.
A.B.I.S. Humanitäre e.V.
Bank details: Sparkasse Trier 1011568
BLZ: 58550130
SWIFT: TRISDE55
IBAN: DE45585501300001011568
Until now, all of our humanitarian work has been carried out through an African association which was unable to provide donor receipts here in Germany. As always, we still have a great deal to do and our next trip is already at the planning stages.
Our next goals are:
• To secure payments for the cooks at the elementary school and, if possible,
also at the newly established high school.
• To provide benches for the school. The children need 60 benches at a cost of €34 per bench.
• To donate seeds for the Oasis Garden and the ant-malaria project.
• To set up micro-financing for projects for local women.
• To collect money for school supplies and books.
• To supply medicines and blankets for the community centre.
We are really excited about the opportunities for humanitarian assistance in the region and welcome your financial support for these projects.