What we've been trying

Why I believe Burkina Faso has a brighter future

My village kids have amazing untapped potential! We decided to try an informal preschool/tutoring program that would be fun and interactive with the goals of fostering an interest in reading and writing and of teaching some basic French to kids before they begin school. Our target audience is kids that are in their first or second year of school, or haven’t yet started.

The 5th/6h grade teacher selected 10 of the strongest and most dynamic readers in his class to be “les petits maîtres” (the little teachers). One afternoon, they came to my house to plan our program. They proposed the activities and the rules (such as we must not teach the kids bad things, we must like kids, etc) and created the schedule for the first two meetings with the kids. Their excitement was apparent as they jostled each other to propose ideas and write on the board and the “official notebook”.

They chose the name “Ecole des Enfants d’Amsia”-the School of the Kids of Amsia. I especially like the translation in Fulfulde when contrasted to the Fulfulde word for student which translates to “kids of the school.” Here we are trying to build a type of informal school that fits the kids’ needs. The kids have ownership of our “school” rather than the other way around.
On the day of our first meeting, the 10 students ran around the village rounding up kids, who came skipping and running to the tree where we were starting our class. The students explained the idea of our program and asked who wanted to be there. 30 little hands shot into the air. We had a couple kids hanging out of the tree and parents stopped by to watch and hopefully start to develop a clearer idea of what their kids do in the school building during the day.

Under our tree, our activities kicked off with two girls reading a story book in French and translating into Fulfulde while a third engaged kids with the images. The students were brilliant at adapting to on the ground challenges. Kids were getting bored, so they made the story more interactive. Little kids were in the back, so they were picked up and plopped in the front where they could see. Fighting kids were separated. Then we broke into small groups so that the students could work with the kids on learning numbers and letters and encouraging them to write and draw.

I would have been proud of these kids had then been American students who were frequently asked to think critically and creatively. Highly impressed had they been Ouagalais, kids from the capital. But I was blown away that my village kids who are generally only asked to memorize, repeat and follow instructions were brilliant, creative problem solvers when faced with real life situations. If you want to see photos check out my flickr account

Some of the other projects on the drawing board and in the works

So you don’t think I’m just “bouffing” your tax money sitting around drinking tea and learning Fulfulde, I’ve outlined a couple other education projects below. I, the girl who can’t even grow tomatoes on her DC balcony, have somehow gotten involved in a few agro-projects as well…but I’ll save those for another day. If you have ideas, questions, resource suggestions, I’d love to hear them all.


Scholarship Program- Thanks to For Granted, an organization founded by a former Peace Corps Volunteer, we have started a scholarship program to pay for lodging and meals for students who attend the middle school in Bani, but come from far away villages. www.forgranted.org
Library- we are working on creating a library and a system to get books into the smaller surrounding villages as well. The community has donated a building and will be fixing it up, but does not have the funds to buy books. We have begun searching for start up funds and have a couple ideas, but if you have any suggestions, they are always appreciated!

Revolving Fund to Support Schools-the US embassy gave us about $1000 worth of pagnes, brightly printed fabric depicting “Burkina-US Friendship.” (Pagnes are bought and brought to tailors with instructions to make custom designed clothes) We are going to sell the pagnes and use the money to start an interest-free revolving fund for the Mothers of Students associations in the district to start small income generating projects to support the schools.

Massive Moringa Planting-we are organizing an Earth Day moringa tree planting in at least 20 of the 33 schools in the district. Moringa leaves are incredibly high in vitamins, minerals, protein, etc. The leaves will be added to school lunches of couscous and beans to supplement students’ nutrition