Greetings and happy Spring!
On March 22nd, World Water Day, BARKA Foundation began a 5-week educational reciprocity program with Wyoming Seminary (Sem), a private college prep school in PA which culminated last month on Earth Day.
Students and faculty were incredibly moved by the dire situation of the Namougou High School and Middle School which has been displaced to Fada (45 km from Namoungou). Over 400 students were living in extreme poverty, biking or walking over 5 miles to school, with little water and food, and living without any parental supervision (their parents are still in Namoungou while students have moved to Fada to continue their education).
BARKA created two short films to expose the situation (see links below).
Wyoming Seminary decided to take action to first secure the water fees for all students which are about $2/month for each student. For 400 students, their goal was to raise $2400 for the 3 months of school that remained. Many Namoungou students had no funds at all to pay for their water at the local pump.
Many students were also going hungry. They had no means to cook for themselves and the school had no canteen which means students had to return home several miles away (some were walking) and light a fire, fetch water and cook a meal- if they could. Sem's second goal was to fund a school canteen to feed every sudent and enable to stay at school during the break between 12 and 3 rather than traveling so far to home only to return for the afternoon session from 3 to 5pm.
Their 3rd goal was to raise funds for bikes for the many students who had no bikes to travel to school and had to walk several miles four times a day.
Sem's virtual Walk for Water ended up raising over $6000 which enabled them to reach all their goals. This week BARKA is leading a ceremony at Namoungou's School to deliver 31 bikes. A canteen lunch program started last month and all students' water fees have been paid from March through end of May when school ends.
This has been one of the most successful educational programs BARKA has ever done. In addition to the funds raised, the impact, and the raised awareness within the community, over 100 students from each school created a penpal relationship with each other, our films were screened and discussed, and academic enagement was made with the Environment Club, French classes, and the entire Lower School. The program was such a success that it has inspired us to replicate it in other schools, something we will be exploring this summer with an intern who works at Sem.
As so often happens, a simple water project leads to a robust series of actions on numerous levels with expanded impact. Thank you for being a part of it.
Just like every drop leads to the ability to fill an entire bucket, so too does every dollar count and contribute to our overall goal. Thank you for your consideration. Barka!
Links:
Dear Clean Water Supporter,
Greetings and happy new year! Special thanks to all who contributed to BARKA's year end, Giving Tuesday, and recurring donor campaigns. We would not have the impact we have for thousands of people in Burkina Faso without you!
2021 is going to be an exciting year for BARKA Foundation. Right now, we are raising funds with local rotary clubs around the US to reach a goal of almost $300,000. This will enable us to drill 20 wells in the eastern region, which is being extremely affected by the world's fastest growing jihadist insurgency. Threats and acts of terrorism have forced more than 1M people to flee their homes resulting in one of the world's largest humanitarian crises of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
The people who are being displaced are overcrowding the city of Fada and putting even more pressure on a water infrastructure that was already inadequate even in the best of times. Therefore, BARKA will focus on increasing water access primarily in the city of Fada N'Gourma, where the terrorist threat is also much lower than in rural regions.
Fundraising will take some time. We hope to have all funds secured and begin implementation before the end of this year. We will keep you up to date. Meanwhile, we welcome your financial support of this important project which will directly benefit over 20,000 people.
Just like every drop leads to the ability to fill an entire bucket, so too does every dollar count and contribute to our overall goal. Thank you for your consideration. Barka!
Dear Supporters of BARKA Foundation,
Since we were last in touch, BARKA's staff on the ground has been working diligently to help our 9 rural village partners to combat the novel coronavirus. We've done this in a series of innovative methods including:
You can read BARKA's press release about these actions and local news coverage in the links below.
Although BARKA was compelled to address the immediate concerns of COVID-19, we want you to know that we are currently developing and fundraising for the largest well-drilling project in our organization's history. This project is partnered with rotary clubs and The Rotary Foundation and will drill 20 wells in the areas of greatest need within the eastern region. With your help, BARKA will increase access to clean drinking water to more than 20,000 people.
GlobalGiving is offering a wonderful way to help support this new project today through Friday in its LittlexLittle campaign. Right now, and until midnight on Friday, 9/18, GlobalGiving will make a 50% match for ALL donations up to $50. You give $50, and GlovalGiving will put in $25.
Every drop of water is precious, and every donation helps us to reach our ambitious goals.
Thank you for being part of the BARKA family that is having such an outsized impact in Burkina Faso. Together, we are changing the world.
Links:
Dear Friend,
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Burkina Faso is experiencing a perfect storm.
Burkina was having a full blown humanitarian crisis even before the start of COVID-19, which it is exceptionally ill-equipped to handle. Almost 1 million people are already internally displaced due to insecurity and being forced to leave their homes, more than 2000 schools and more than 300 health clinics were forced to close by terrorists, much of the nation was already in a state of emergency and under curfew. Well, the rest of the world quickly caught up as we now all face eerily similar conditions.
The lockdown and economic collapse caused by COVID19 hit nonprofits very hard. We'd like to thank all those who have been thinking of BARKA and the Burkinabe we serve and made donations in recent weeks. It touches our hearts. In honor of this unprecedented crisis, the NGO community quickly reacted to take the unprecedented step of creating a Giving Tuesday in May to remind everyone that the organizations doing life saving work around the world also need support.
It's difficult to ask you to support our work at a time like this. We understand too well that everyone has been adversely financially affected, that you may be experiencing grief at the loss of a loved one... this is not a time when BARKA Foundation would normally ask for financial support. We almost did not participate Giving Tuesday on May 5th. However we realized that reaching out now presents an important opportunity to inform you of what's happening on the ground in Burkina right now. It also offers a way for you to be more involved, to be a partner in this work, to share in its successes and to help ensure its continuity.
Right now, BARKA is doing all it can to ensure the health and safety of thousands of people. We have shifted our focus to combat the coronavirus by delivering hand washing sensitization and liquid soap to 3000 people, while supporting a local women's organization which produced the soap. If we raise more funds, we can reach more people. 100% of funds raised today will go toward this action.
Even though Giving Tuesday has passed, please consider making a donation today to help some of the most vulnerable people on the planet. BARKA serves as a conduit between you and the people of Burkina. In that spirit of reciprocity, we want to thank you for your financial support which makes our ability to support Burkinabè possible. We can't thank you enough. All we can do is say the biggest thank you we know how to say... barka.
Links:
Dear Friend of BARKA,
We hope this email finds you safe, healthy and following precautions to shelter in place and limit social interactions in order to reduce exposure to COVID-19. In the light of the global Coronavirus pandemic, it has never been clearer how fragile life is, how interconnected we all are to one another, and how collaboratively we must work
to overcome the grand challenges we face. It is our sincere hope that we emerge from this crisis with increased awareness and resolve to ensure that everyone has clean water, food, shelter and healthcare.
CORONAVIRUS IMPACT IN BURKINA FASO: Burkina has now confirmed 114 cases of Coronavirus; 4 Ministers and the Ambassdaor of the United States, who has been very supportive of BARKA's work, have been infected, and there have been 5 confirmed deaths. There are more cases of COVID-19 and more deaths in Burkina Faso than anywhere else in West Africa. The Burkina government has prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people, bars, restaurants and markets have been closed in Ouagadougou, a nationwide curfew from 7pm to 5am began on March 21st, all schools are closed until April, the two national airports have closed and land and railway traffic has been suspended.
We are particularly concerned about the virus' effect in Burkina because its national health infrastructure is so ill-equipped and vulnerable. In addition, Burkina was experiencing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis before this due to insecurity which could disrupt humanitarian aid flow. To make matters worse, nearly half the country lacks access to clean water, making the Coronavirus an even bigger threat. Combine this with poor hygiene, handwashing without soap, and low awareness of the vectors of disease in rural areas, and the result could be catastrophic.
For further details about the situation in Burkina which BARKA is monitoring daily, please visit our webpage devoted to our response to COVID-19 in Burkina Faso.
BARKA'S RESPONSE: During a Board Meeting on March 21st, BARKA’s Board of Directors determined to immediately focus its efforts to sensitize the population of our village partners and internally displaced people currently taking shelter in Fada N’Gourma on the critical importance of frequent handwashing at this time.
In the process, BARKA will support several local women’s organizations in the Fada area by purchasing locally produced soap made with shea butter. As markets, sales and revenue have dried up for local sellers, this will provide a much-needed income generating activity for dozens of women in several women-run associations.
BARKA's staff is all healthy and taking necessary precautions such as limiting travel, avoiding large meetings, and focusing its work in the Fada commune, which has no confirmed cases as of yet.
HOW YOU CAN HELP: We realize that everyone has been hit hard economically by this sudden life-changing situation that we all face. We'd like to emphasize that as difficult as things may seem to us in developed countries, the situation is far more grave in Burkina. If you're looking for ways to help those less fortunate and more vulnerable, making a donation to assist BARKA's in utilizing its WASH expertise to reduce Coronavirus transmission in the bush of Africa offers a great opportunity to participate.
Thank you for your generosity of spirit, your big heart and your prayers. May we all come through this crisis together with greater strength, resliience, wisdom and love in our hearts. Barka.
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