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!