Post secondary Education for Girls in Burkina Faso

 "There is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls". Kofi Annon, former U.N. Secretary General

The school year is coming to a close in Burkina Faso and Assn. NEEED informs us that of the 12 young women supported by Friends of Burkina Faso and GlobalGiving this year, 10 have successfully completed their first year of training.  (The second year students will do practice teaching for another month.)  One student will repeat her first year due to a long illness, and one student failed in her studies.

The following three students wish to share with you their stories and their gratitude for your generous support:

Emma Marie Rose.  My parents are subsistence farmers.  When I told them that I received a scholarship from Assn NEEED and Friends of Burkina Faso to be trained as a primary school teacher, my father killed a chicken and my mother prepared rice to celebrate this news.  My training went very well this year.  I am very grateful for your support and I wish to encourage you in your support of the education of young women like me whose only hope for such training is through the generosity of your donors!

Zalissa.   My father has four wives and 21 children.  In a poor and polygamous family like mine, it is very difficult to contemplate access to any education.  Thanks to Assn NEEED and Friends of Burkina Faso, I am in my first year of primary school teacher training.   I thank you very much for what you have allowed me to become today and for what I will become tomorrow.

Felicite.  I am in my first year of training to be a primary school teacher.  I am one of five children in my family.  When my older sister was 13 and in 8th grade, she got pregnant.  She was forced to leave home, and school, to live with the father of her child.  Due to my family’s poverty, I also had to leave school.  Fortunately, I received a scholarship from Assn. NEEED.  My family is counting on me to pay for the schooling of my three younger siblings.  I promise you that I will work hard and merit the confidence you have placed in me.

On behalf of all of the young Burkinabe women whose educations you have supported, I want to add my deepest gratitude for your giving them this opportunity.  Not only are they, with rare exceptions, achieving their goals but they are also setting an outstanding example for their younger peers, and their parents, for what they can achieve.  Thank you for your past and continued support!

Ever wonder what a $1,540 teacher training scholarship means to a young village woman in northern Burkina Faso?  The students (12 this year) who receive the scholarships to which you generously contribute are carefully selected based on their academic ability, their expressed commitment to teaching AND on their need for financial assistance in order to enroll in primary school teacher training.  

Three first-year students wish to express their deepest gratitude to GlobalGiving donors for their scholarships which have given them the opportunity to train as primary school teachers.

Risnata.  I am a 21 year old 1^st-year student at the National School for Primary School Teacher Training in Ouahigouya (northern Burkina Faso).  I am an orphan: I lost both of my parents.  It is with much emotion and a heart full of joy that I write to you to say Thank You for your invaluable support.  Your assistance will help me to become the responsible person I want to become at the end of my training.  The training is going well and I am very proud to be able to benefit from it.  A huge Thank You for your support.

Zalissa.  I am 20 years old, single, and in my first year at the National School for Primary School Teacher Training in Ouahigouya.  Sincerely, I am very very happy to have your support.  This year’s training focuses on theory (including general principles of pedagogy and their specific application to teaching all primary school subjects; and professional ethics).  I will spend next year practice teaching in the classroom.  Honestly, it is thanks to your support that I am in this training program and will be a teacher, and a responsible woman, at the end of my training.

Hadjaratou.  I am 22 years old and I have a two-year old child.  I am in my first year of training at the National School for Primary School Teacher Training. I am very grateful to Association NEEED and its partners (including Friends of Burkina Faso and GlobalGiving donors) for the support I have received, allowing me to train to become a primary school teacher.  Without that, I would not have been able to have this training.  Thanks to your support, I hope to become a model teacher.  Thank you!

On behalf of these young women and their fellow trainees whose education you are supporting, thank you for your past and continuing support!