St joseph helps Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso, a little country located in the East of Nigeria in Africa is one of the poorest countries in the world.  The capital city Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso are, unfortunately, the only cities in the country that can have access to drinking water. On the one hand, this situation is problematic because the sahelian climate in Burkina Faso causes droughts. On the other hand, climate change is responsible for deforestion and the emigration of the population. Our school, came to help Burkina faso financially. So then, we can ask ourself : how can Saint Joseph Carnolès help Burkina Faso with sustainable development ? In 2013, Miss Thébaut went to Burkina Faso with a student from Saint Joseph. They shared Burkinabé’s everyday life and visited their school. This article was inspired by the Environment Day on Tuesday November 10th.

As mentioned above, Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world. Indeed the population live with only 1,50 € per a day. An other problem to the economic development is that Burkina Faso can’t do commercial trade because the country isn’t open in front of the sea. We can add that there aren’t train rails too.

Fortunately in Burkina Faso solutions exist. Thanks to humanitarian help. Burkinabé recently discovered goldmines and this discovery contributes to an industrial source of wealth.

Women contribute to the nation’s economy. By using wood to cook but also by selling wood in a marketplace. Finally last year, thanks to Saint Joseph’s sewing machines they could learn how to be a dressmaker and earn money. This is very important especially as Burkina Faso is  a cotton producer.

The economic evolution is also due to the creation of a garden center. There, they cultivate cashew nuts, corns, mangos, papaya, sorghum and millet. A German NGO helps the project with the watering of the plantations. The farming production is sold. Even if the sales can be complicated as they aren’t controlled because Burkina Faso is too poor, this agriculture permits to slightly reduce food insecurity. Unfortunately this year the crops have been bad because of flooding due to climate change.

All this helped Burkina Faso to progress economically. Thanks to this education, Burkina Faso will gradually overcome poverty.

What about its society ?

While in France education is obligatory, in Burkina many children do not go to school. The lucky ones attend poor schools and they are generally around 60 to 100 pupils per class. Miss Thébault visited a school where a large need in help with toilets was present. Actually, students as well as teachers used a mere wall by way of toilets. To cope with that problem, dry toilets were built in 12 different schools funded by students’ parents.

The support of our school continues with teaching women how to sew. Indeed, women earn 1 euro 50 per day. By picking bundles of wood sticks. We help solve this problem by giving courses. In order to increase their income. The school we keep in touch with, offers a ration of millet and sorghum as lunch. Following the agreements of parents, the exchange meal was introduced. Saint Joseph Students changed their meals against a bowl of rice!

And the environnement ?

As far as the environment is concerned, St joseph school also tries to bring its help. Outside the capital, there is no garbage collection and no treatment of non-drinking water. It causes pollution because a lot of trash cover the streets. Animals such as pigs walk freely in the streets. One the one hand it can be an advantage because these animals eat those trash so they clean up the streets, but on the other hand they spread a lot of diseases. There is also deforestation in Burkina Faso and women can’t cook because they can’t find wood to light a fire. Saint jospeh school helps them plant trees and create eco-parks.

Unfortunately the floods that underwent Burkina Faso this summer destroyed a large part of these plantations, and the country still tries to find a solution.

Even if Saint Joseph helps Burkina Faso, a lot of projects are still looking forward to be realised. The lack of space is ever-present and the education quality is precarious.The population needs help to live in a comfortable way. 

 Alluch / Andrieux / Adonto.

2^nde Euro Institution Saint Joseph - Carnolès