By Suzanne Plopper | Project Manager
Thanks to our generous GlobalGiving partners, we are able to continue to provide noon meals to the students of the Lycee Modern de l’Amitie – LMA (the combined middle/secondary school built for rural girls in northern Burkina Faso).
Your donations provide the students of this school a basic noon meal every day they are in school. This contributes immeasurably to their academic success. The following table shows the percentage of students in the LMA, and of all middle school students in northern Burkina Faso, who passed national exams at the end of each year of middle school in order to go on to the next grade. Note that the passing rate for students of the LMA is consistently almost double that of all other schools in the region. The combination of learning conditions (including a noon meal along with high academic standards, committed teachers, parents and students, and small class size) are crucial to this success. (In response to significantly lower scores this year than in previous years, our colleagues in Burkina say that “all of the teachers and actors in the world of education felt like the exams were far more difficult this year than in previous years”. The national pass rate was 32%.)
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Middle/secondary school for girls 71.0 77.18 81.15 79.0 53.84
All students in middle schools 36.26 37.62 41.78 39.83 29.16
in northern Burkina Faso
I am happy to share with you that NEEED (the local organization that runs this project) is implementing a post secondary training/education project this fall for girls who successfully complete secondary school. Thus, at least some of the girls whose noon meals you support in the LMA who successfully complete secondary school will have a chance to receive primary school teacher training, nursing or midwifery training, or a university education. NEEED, with support of its partners, will provide as many scholarships each year as funds allow to these secondary school graduates. Thanks to several generous partners, Friends of Burkina Faso is providing scholarships this year to 13 secondary school graduates: nine (9) girls in primary school teacher training, two (2) girls in diploma nursing training, one (1) girl in State nursing training, and one (1) girl who will attend the University of Ouagadougou and study law. All of these girls are from rural farming families and ten are orphans.These scholarships will enable the girls to learn a marketable skill needed in Burkina Faso. This means that at least some of these village girls who at age 6 had no hope of an education will now become educators, nurses and a lawyer!
I hope you find your partnership with these girls to be valuable and worthwhile. We realize that the economy is tough, and we thank you for investing your hard-earned money in the hard-working young women in northern Burkina Faso. Please consider telling your friends and family about the Noon Meal project for middle and secondary students in northern Burkina Faso - share the link on your blogs or social networks, use the tell-a-friend feature on the project page to email your network, or just bring us up in conversation. You know your friends and family best, so use your own words - tell them why you chose the Noon Meal Project and what it means to you.
Thank you again for all you have done to support the Noon Meal project, an essential component of the optimal learning conditions that NEEED endeavors to maintain for the middle and secondary school girls of the Lycee Modern de l'Amitie in northern Burkina Faso.
Most sincerely,
Suzanne Plopper
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By Suzanne Plopper | Project Manager
By Suzanne Plopper | Project Manager
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