Friends of Burkina Faso (FBF), Chester, United Stateshttp://fbf.tamu.edu
Target: $135,057.28
Raised so far: $156,585.19
Great news - this project has reached its funding target. Thank you to everyone who donated. Search for another cause to support
Friends of Burkina Faso (FBF), Chester, United Stateshttp://fbf.tamu.edu
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The project pays for a noon meal for girls who attend a girls’ middle school and whose parents cannot afford school. Girls walk 6 km to and from school and have no other source of food during the day.
For the 2008-09 school year, Friends of Burkina Faso will support noon meals for about 500 students of the College Modern de l'Amitie, at a cost of $.40/day/student. A noon meal is essential to students' learning, particularly as they have little or no breakfast and walk 6 km in the heat to and from school. In the 2007-08 school year, the noon meal contributed to an impressive 81% of students completing coursework successfully.
Three local women prepare a common noon meal of rice and sauce for the students, enhancing students capacity to learn and succeed in their education.
Education is one of the most important means of empowering women with the knowledge, skills and self-confidence necessary to participate fully in the development process. Access to food will increase students' ability to succeed in their studies
Suzanne Plopper
Greetings friends,
Since 2006, the Noon Meals Improves Girls’ Learning in Burkina Faso Project has been part of the GlobalGiving community. Thanks to the very generous support of 4941 donors like you, we have reached our goal of $175,000 to support school lunches for students of the combined middle-secondary school for girls) in northern Burkina Faso. In the past six years, the student body has grown from 200 to 850 students and you have helped to ensure that the girls have had a noon meal each day they were in school. This has contributed immeasurably to their high academic achievement. During this time, we have also worked with other partners who have supported other components of this school. We will continue to contribute to school lunches for the next two years, after which our partners will assume full support for school lunches for these girls.
As you know, the Noon Meals Improves Girls’ Learning Project is part of a larger effort aimed at promoting the education of village girls in northern Burkina Faso. The foundation of this effort, the Lambs Support Girls’ Education Project supports the educational costs and a lamb for each girl entering primary school - at a cost of $80. Parents raise and sell the lambs each year in order to support their daughter’s remaining 12 years of primary-middle-secondary school. Thus, $80 in donations pays for 13 years of schooling!
The aim of this project is to give village girls the opportunity to go to school, and to demonstrate to parents and to the Government of Burkina Faso the value of educating village women. Tremendous interest and appreciation has been expressed by village leaders and parents and by the Government of Burkina Faso for this project. The girls consistently do very well in school. NEEED (the local NGO that runs the project) has intervened in 161 villages in the region, supporting the first year educational costs and a lamb for 15-25 girls in a village one time, and demonstrating to parents how they can support their daughters’ education via the “Lambs” strategy. NEEED has requests from 60 additional villages in the region to participate in the Lambs Support Girls’ Education Project and anticipates similar requests from the remaining approximately 40 villages in the northern region. The Government of Burkina Faso honored our organization and by extension all of our GlobalGiving donors/partners on their Independence Day December 12, 2011 for our support of village girls’ education in the northern region.
With the support of its partners, NEEED hopes to intervene in each of the remaining villages one time over the next 3 years.
According to the United Nations, “Women’s education is the most influential factor in improving child health and reducing infant mortality. Nothing will turn the tide against poverty the way that education can, especially for girls. The returns, with respect to the next generation of children, are striking.” We invite you to join us in enabling NEEED to jumpstart girls’ education throughout the remaining villages of the northern region of Burkina Faso. Please go to www.globalgiving.org/projects/girls-in-africa/ to learn more about, and to donate to, this project.
Suzanne Plopper
During my visit to Burkina Faso in December, I met with administrators, teachers and students of the middle/secondary school for girls. I continue to be impressed with the organization, discipline and seriousness with which everyone views this school in terms of the quality of education it offers to its students. Because of its very positive reputation, there is increasing competition for students to be enrolled there. With 850 students this year, NEEED hopes to add additional classrooms to accomodate a maximum of 1000 students. This will necessitate expansion of the cafeteria as well.
Suzanne Plopper
The school year is off to a positive start at the Lycee Modern de l’Amitie (LMA), with the enrollment of 850 middle school and secondary school students in 17 classrooms, maintaining the standard of a maximum of 50 students per class.
The majority of village girls who qualify for middle and secondary school in the project region entered primary school with assistance from the Lambs Support Village Girls’ Education in Burkina Faso Project (on the GlobalGiving web site) also run by Association NEEED. This project is the foundation/engine, for village girls’ education in northern Burkina Faso, without which very few village girls even enter school. The initial purchase of a lamb enables the enrollment of 6 year-old girls in village primary schools. Their parents raise and sell their lambs, and buy school materials and new lambs, each year to support their daughters’ education through 13 years of schooling (with the exception of school lunches, the cost of which is beyond parent’s reach). Your support for the Lambs Support
Village Girls’ Education Project allows village girls to enter school and ultimately achieve 13 years of education. Their academic performance has been phenomenal, their parents’ support outstanding. The Lambs Support Village Girls’ Education in Burkina Faso Project needs your donations in order to continue enrolling young girls in school. Please check it out.
As a testament to the academic achievements of “our” girls, in partnership with two generous partners, Friends of Burkina Faso is sponsoring seven village girls in post secondary training this year: in nursing, midwifery, teacher training and medicine.
At a recent ceremony honoring the support for girls’ education at the primary, middle and secondary, and post-secondary levels in the project region, a representative of the secondary school girls (who initially entered primary school with the support of the Lambs Support Village Girls’ Education Project) proclaimed, “Without the assistance from Association NEEED and its partners (that’s you!), many girls would be destined to domestic work,
field work and to be given in marriage at a young age. Many girls, women of tomorrow, would have no possibility to contribute to the development of Burkina Faso.”
On behalf of Association NEEED, and especially “our” extraordinary girls, our sincere Thank You. Your past and continuing support of these girls enables them to enter and progress through school with the purchase of a lamb; and to have an adequate meal each day in middle/secondary school.
Suzanne Plopper
The Lycee Moderne de l'Amitie (LMA, the combined middle/secondary school) reports the following year-end results for its students: 70% of all students successfully passed national exams, qualifying them to proceed to the next class.
Unfortunately, Burkina Faso experienced political unrest for much of the spring semester which forced the closing of schools for extended periods of time during the semester. This disrupted the educational system throughout the country and impacted teachers' ability to adequately cover subject matter in their classes.
Given these conditions, however, students of the LMA still outperformed other middle school students in the region. Forty eight percent of LMA students passed the BEPC (the exit exam at the end of middle school which determines if a student may go on to secondary school) versus 30% of students at all other middle schools in the region.
Suzanne Plopper
Bonus Day: March 16!
Dear Noon Meal project donor,
On March 16, GlobalGiving.org is matching at 30% all online donations up to $1,000 per donor per project! There is $75,000 available in matching funds on March 16.
In addition to the 30% match, GlobalGiving is offering a $1,000 bonus to the project that raises the most funds that day and a $1,000 bonus to the project that receives donations from the most individual donors!
Terms and Conditions:
• Matching is applied up to $1,000 per donor per project on March 16, 2011 between 12:01am and 11:59 pm EST (GMT-4) until matching funds run out;
• There is $75,000 available matching funds;
• Only online donations (credit card or paypal) are eligible for matching. Donations made by check are not eligible;
• Donations made on www.globalgiving.co.uk or any GlobalGiving corporate sites (including Nike, Global Action Atlas, etc) are NOT eligible for matching.
Friends of Burkina Faso would like to take this opportunity to maximize our ability to continue to support a noon meal for the girls attending the Lycee Modern de l'Amitie (middle/secondary school for girls) in northern Burkina Faso.
Thank you for your continuing support of this project.
Suzanne Plopper
The cantine at the Lycee Modern de l'Amitie is operated by by 4 cooks and provides a hot lunch (of beans, rice or pasta) to 750 students daily when school is in session. In order to economize and to instill a sense of responsibility in the students, students are required to serve all of the lunches and and to maintain a clean dining area. Due to the large number of students and the size of the cantine, students must take their lunches in two sittings both inside and outside the dining room. Students rotate as servers for their assigned tables of 12.
Photo 1: serving bowls of beans just out of the kitchen.
Photo 2: a student picks up the serving bowl for her table.
Following each sitting, students clean the tables and sweep the floor. Once a week, students wash down the entire dining area floor.
The cantine is necessary not only because of the distance between the school and the town where the vast majority of students reside, but also because of the extreme poverty of the students’ parents and the living conditions of some students. Some students’ lodging consists of a mat to sleep on and they must find their own food to eat. Providing them lunch at school reduces distances they must walk, ensures them at least one meal a day, and enables them to study before afternoon classes resume. Most girls entered school initially with the assistance of the Lambs for School Project (GlobalGiving project #1818). However, the sale of their lambs each year covers their school clothes and materials and is not sufficient to cover the cost of school lunches.
Photo 3: Ouedraogo Suzanne: "I live 11 km from school and the cantine allows me to eat, to rest and to study my lessons before classes resume in the afternoon."
Photo 4: Sarambe Karidiata: "Without the cantine, I would be obliged to pass the entire day with nothing to eat."
The noon meal which you so generously support is essential to the phenomenal success of these students.
Suzanne Plopper
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
Suzanne Plopper
Thanks to your generous support in 2009, the students of the Lycee Modern de l’Amitie (newly combined middle/secondary school for girls in northern Burkina Faso) continue to benefit from a basic but nutritious noon meal at school. A special thanks to everyone who contributed to the Noon Meal Improves Girls’ Learning in Burkina Faso Project 1) through Oprah’s For All Women Registry in October, and 2) during GlobalGiving’s Give More Get More Challenge in November-December. Your generous response during these two events has been critical to our ability to ensure school lunches through the remainder of this school year. The students continue to do very well in their studies. We look forward to posting year-end results in May. The number of students qualifying to attend this school continues to increase. With an anticipated student population of approximately 800 next school year, the cost of school lunches will increase by a third. Your continued support is greatly appreciated by the students of the Lycee Modern de l’Amitie. “There is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls”. Kofi Annon, former U.N. Secretary General.
Suzanne Plopper
Suzanne Plopper
500 girls, nearly all of them children of poor rural farmers in northern Burkina Faso, will begin the school year October 1 at the Lycee Moderne de l’Amitie (LMA). This is an increase of approximately 100 girls over last year. Formerly the College Modern de l’Amitie (the girls’ middle school), the school is now a combined middle/secondary school as of this year in order to facilitate the continuation of girls’ education through secondary school. Hence, the name change and the recent completion of a second bloc of classrooms. (Other girls who have completed primary school through our Lambs For School Project are attending public combined middle/secondary schools, built by NEEED, nearer their homes.) The girls continue to do extremely well academically, thanks to the LMA’s high standards, parental support (via the Lambs for School project), and the educational environment which includes a noon meal for the girls. With the increase in number of students, however, NEEED is challenged to provide a noon meal for all students this year. Parents are being asked for the first time to contribute the maximum possible to the lunch program: 25% of the cost. We need your support to ensure that the girls will be able to have a basic but nutritious noon meal, their only access to food throughout the day. Given essential educational opportunities, girls from village farming families excel academically! The farther these girls go in school, the greater the chance that they will 1) make better choices for themselves and their future families, and 2) contribute to their communities and society in productive ways. While our initial goal was to support the primary education of rural girls, we have seen (through their very high academic achievement and virtually zero dropout rate over the past ten years) both the girls’ and their parents’ commitment to continue their education as far as their efforts and our combined resources will allow them to go. For these reasons, both NEEED and Friends of Burkina Faso are determined to provide an adequate educational environment for the girls through secondary school. They have earned, and continue to earn, our support! Our sincere thank you for your donations to the Noon Meal Improves Girls Learning in Burkina Faso Project. Your support contributes importantly to the educational environment that makes such achievement possible. Look for updates on the continuing progress of these exceptional girls. We welcome your questions &/or feedback regarding any aspect of this project.
Suzanne Plopper
An impressive 79% of girls attending the College Modern de l’Amitie (the girls’ middle school in northern Burkina Faso) in 2008-2009 passed national exams, qualifying them to continue to the next level. 72% of students in their last year at the College Modern de l’Amitie passed national exams qualifying them to go on to secondary school. This compares with a 39% success rate among students in the general population taking these exams.
Access to a noon meal has played an essential role in the students’ success, along with dedicated teachers and parents and, most importantly, the commitment of students to their learning.
With an anticipated enrollment of 425 students in middle school next year, the cost of the school lunch program will be approximately $35,000 for the school year. Currently, we have $10,860 to support this project. With your help, we hope to raise an additional $17,000 in order to ensure the continuation of this essential element in the students’ success.
On behalf of NEEED and the middle school students and their parents, we thank you for your past and continuing support which is crucial to enabling these girls to succeed in school.
As always, we welcome your comments and questions.
To quote Kofi Annan, former U.N. Secretary General: “There is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls”.
Suzanne Plopper
Our sincere thanks to everyone who so generously contributed to the school lunch program this past semester, and especially during the Everybody Can Win challenge in November/December. Your support has enabled us to fund one-half of the cost of the school lunch program this spring semester.
Providing noon meals to the students of the middle school ensures that these girls receive basic nourishment which will enable them to have the capacity to learn and succeed in school. The girls walk 6 km to and from school in the sweltering heat with little to nothing to eat in the morning. The lunch of rice, corn or beans with sauce now costs $.40 a day for one girl, an amount that their families are unable to pay.
The students of this middle school are from villages in the region and are pursuing their education thanks to the support of individual donors in some cases and of our sister project “Education For 900 Rural Girls in Burkina Faso” (also known as the Lambs For School Project). We are all proud of the educational achievements of these girls, the women of tomorrow in Burkina Faso.
Thank you for your continuing support!
Lacine Sawadogo
We would like to share a quick update from Burkina Faso.
NEEED is very proud of our cafeteria and wishes to thank GlobalGiving and Friends of Burkina Faso for all of their support which has made it possible to serve a noon meal to the students of this middle school.
During the school day, three women prepare the noon meal for 400 students, using bottled gas in order to not consume wood. The large cooking pots are then placed near the dining area so students can be served.
We have a well that provides us with drinking water for the students and currently everyone is on vacation.
Thanks for your support.
Suzanne Plopper
I am very happy to report that 81% of middle school girls passed national exams in May, qualifying them to go on to the next class. Their achievement levels continue to rise: in '05-'06, 71% passed these exams; and in '06-'07, 77% passed. Next year, the first class to attend the girls' middle school will take year-end exams to determine their eligibility for senior high school. With students' hard work, in an adequate learning environment (with committed teachers, 50-student class sizes AND a daily noon meal), we hope that 100% of the girls will qualify for senior high school. (This year, by contrast, 37% of middle school students from all public middle schools in the region passed qualifying exams to go on to senior high school.) We anticipate an enrollment of 500 students in middle school next year, an increase of 100 over last year. The cost of the school lunch program will rise to approximately $17,000. Currently, we have $8,000. We need to raise $9,000 in order to ensure the continuation of this essential element in the students’ success.
Our sincere thank you for your past, and continued, support for school lunches for the middle school girls. These basic lunches of rice and sauce (costing approximately $.31 per day per girl) contribute greatly to their ability to concentrate in school.
Suzanne Plopper
NEEED (the Burkinabe NGO that founded & runs the girls' education project) reports that 98% of girls supported by the Lambs For School Project (see Education For 900 Rural Girls in Burkina Faso) are passing annual exams in primary school; and 100% are passing annual exams in middle school, qualifying them to go to the next level. It is anticipated that middle school enrollment will grow from 400 this year to 600 next year. At just $.30 per student per day, school lunches are essential to students' ability to concentrate and succeed in their studies.
Suzanne Plopper
As reported recently, the student population at the College Modern de l'Amitie (girls' middle school) is doubling next year and is planned to go up by at least 1/3 the following year. The population of rural girls entering primary school with our support is going up by 1/3 next year as well. As our Burkinabe colleagues have recently informed us " La machine de l’education des filles est lancée. Les parents perçoivent de plus en plus le bien fondé de l’éducation des filles, ce qui fait que NEEED est de plus en plus sollicité." (The idea of girls education has taken off. Parents perceive more and more the importance of educating girls, which means that NEEED is increasingly solicited ..." by village leaders and parents requesting assistance to help give their daughters an opportunity to go to school.)
With your help, Friends of Burkina Faso will cover the cost of the school lunch program for the middle school for the next two years. We are working towards raising $42,000 to cover the cost of the school lunch program for this school year. Thank you for your support.
The Friends of Burkina Faso (FBF)
Our organization participated in the GlobalGiving FilmFest and we would like to share with you the video produced by filmmaker Kathleen Kastl (check out link below). This video tells our story and that of the people who are impacted by our work.
Take a look at some attached photos and our new photos in the project photo gallery.
We are also pleased to report that we received an extra $5,000 from eBay for our project thanks to your generous donations during the eBay bounty period.
Again, thank you for your generous support!
Suzanne Plopper
I just got word from our colleagues in Burkina Faso that the school enrollment will be 400 this year (50 more than I had guessed); and based on this increase, there will likely be 600 students next year. The cost of lunches for next year will be $24,000 and for the following year $36,000. We have already paid for lunches for the past school year. (Based on enrollment and number of school days per year, the cost per child per day is US$0.33, including ingredients, preparation and cooking fuel.)
These girls from rural villages are doing extremely well academically........... but of course, as with any project like this that grows so fast, it becomes more challenging to keep up the financial side.
NEEED, the organization we support, and which runs this girls' education project, is: a.. planning to double the capacity of the girls' middle school in order to accomodate all girls out of rural primary schools who qualify. (NEEED will need to ultimately limit their enrollment at 1000 students.) They just received a surprise $10,000 and are beginning construction of the foundation of a new bloc of classrooms. b.. seeking funds from other sources to build two new public middle schools in the region, and negotiating with the Ministry of Education to move these potential new public schools up the priority list for the MOE budget, in order to continue to ensure all girls (and boys in the case of the public schools) who successfully finish primary school a place in middle school. In addition to benefitting the girls they support in primary and middle school, NEEED also hopes to demonstrate to the government the capacity of these young girls and the benefits of educating women so as to nudge the government to do more in women's education in other regions of the country.
I'm very proud to be a partner with such forward-thinking, energetic and generous people........and of course do want to miss opportunities to help them achieve their goals.
Suzanne Plopper
A very generous partner has just offered to match all donations to our Noon Meal project. Imagine! Any donation you make now will automatically be doubled, enabling the College Modern de l'Amitie to ensure noon meals for their 350 students next school year.
Suzanne Plopper
The college (middle school) reports that in this second year of operation, 77% of students advanced to the next level (compared with 71% last year and less than half that number in public schools). 22% will repeat their previous year of studies. Excellent results in a very rigorous system! The long term goal is 90% advancement to the next level. The noonday meal has contributed greatly to the students' concentration.
Suzanne Plopper
Thanks to Global Giving's support, the middle school reports that for the first trimester of the school year '06-'07, 82% of students completed coursework successfully compared with 60% in the first trimester of '05-'06 when school lunches were not available. "What intellectual work can one ask of a child who is overcome by hunger?"
Suzanne Plopper
Suzanne Plopper
The College Modern de l’Amitie (CMA) reports the following results from their first year of operation: 71% of students qualified to go on to the next year of studies, 22% will repeat their first year, and 7% will be oriented toward other forms of training. These are excellent results for the CMA’s first year of operation. They represent twice the success rate of public middle schools in the region. It is anticipated that with the provision of school lunches next year, 90% of students will succeed in passing qualifying exams. Children need a minimum of nutrition in order to concentrate in school. The CMA is counting on your generous support so that it may provide school lunches next year.