Over the past four years we have been helping an orphanage and young women's refuge in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Through small donations from customers in our coffee shop and through selling various ethnic art and jewellery we have been able to feed and educate the 56 children who live in the home. Due to the poor building condition and over crowded situation, the orphanage faced closure in 2015. To prevent the closure which would have meant the youngsters being turned out on the street, Hemingways managed to secure rent on two newly built houses not far from the original home, in which the children live currently. Over the years we have managed to keep the children fed, educated, and housed, however that has all been extremely costly and although improved their situation has not really solved any long term problems. We are now intent on rebuilding the old orphanage into a Children's Village on the original site, with a great deal more than just shelter. We have designed three large houses, one for the older boys, one for the older girls and a nursery for the babies and toddlers, a water well and tower, children's vegetable garden, outdoor kitchen and eating area and chicken coup for the children to be involved in. We have the funds to do this already, and in fact the building works started two and half months ago. However once the building work is complete, we are going to need to furnish it, the major cost being bunk beds and mattresses, as well as all the other required bed linen, tables, chairs, mosquito nets etc. We also recognise that this Children's Village does not want to be reliant on continued help and donations, but wants to be entirely self reliant. To this end, we have designed a few "extras" to the village to help them achieve this. These being three large workshops, one to be used as a sewing shop to teach the older girls sewing and clothes making so that they can hopefully generate their own income. Another will be a weaving workshop with the same idea in mind. (We already have the three weaving machines :) and th third workshop will be carpentry and metal work for the older boys to learn useful trades alongside their formal education. We are also putting a chicken farm adjacent to the village where they can produce their own eggs for own use and to sell, and a very large fruit and vegetable plot, to produce enough for them plus excess to sell locally. What they are most excited about is that we have also designed and drawn up plans for a "cafe Italiano" on site which will operated and run by the staff of the orphanage, with some outside help, and also the older children who will get involved in learning customer service, food preparation, and general business skills. The Children's Village is on the outskirts of a busy town called Gourcy and the cafe will be open to the public to also generate an income for the home. And thats what we're raising money for. We have the initial build costs of the Children's Houses etc and they are nearing completion. We do not however have the funds for the rest of it. We have already laid the foundations for the workshops and cafe in the original building but we need a further £15,000 minimum to complete the building of these and furnish the houses and equip the farm. PLEASE HELP as we are so close to making this wonderful little community self sufficient and giving them the dignity to go in to the future doing it for themselves and the future generations of kids ahead of them. I am going out there in a couple of weeks time to check on progress of the building works, and I'd love to take them some good news!