Schools in Burkina Faso

(Heidi) On my trip to Burkina Faso, I was able to go to several of the schools that our sponsored children attend. Here are my observations about the schools.

The literacy rate is very low, like 25% of adults can actually read and write. There are a lot of reasons for that, the main one being that people are focused on survival, so school is second priority.  Many kids do not go to school, or often, the family can only choose to send one or two to school, as they can't afford to send them all. 

For kids who do go to school, the first option is government schools.  These cost about $10 a year. Sounds reasonable, right? But there are 120 kids per teacher/classroom, and the parents who had their kids in these schools said that the kids often can't even see the blackboard.  There were few to no textbooks, and if your parents are not educated, how would a child learn in that situation? 

The girls we sponsor all go to private schools.  These schools costs about $150/year.  In these classrooms, there are 60-80 kids per teacher.  It still seems like it would be hard to learn, but it is a better situation than the government schools.  The kids go to school from 7am-12pm, then they go home for lunch and a break during the heat of the day.  Then they come back from 3-5 pm.   We visited several of these schools.

Finally, we visited one private school that is a tier above. This school costs $300/year (double the others), but there are only 30 kids in the classrooms. What an amazing difference that made!  You have to apply for this school now for next year, so we are going to try to get at least a few of our girls moved into this school for next year.  The extra $150 seems well worth it to me. 

In school, the kids learn to read and write French.  All of the kids speak their tribal language at home, but French is the official language in schools. This is helpful since there are 230 some tribal languages in the country!

The kids wear uniforms if they have them, but some kids did not have them and it didn't seem to be a big deal.  We pay enough money for uniforms and books for our girls. 

Another thing we noticed in the classrooms was that there was hardly anyone absent. Most had 0 missing, or maybe 1 student. In a place where the kids get sick or have to work or don't have enough food, I found it amazing that they would make sure they got to school no matter what. It shows that education is valued when they are able to pursue it. 

So glad we are helping 19 kids this year. We hope to help 40 next year! 

Homes in Burkina Faso

(Heidi) On my trip, I was able to go to visit many of the homes of our sponsored children.  Here are my observations about that.

Our girls all live in Ouagadougou, in town.  We found that there were essentially two kinds of homes that we went to.  Most were like this... Made of mud bricks and something smooth over it (more mud?), with a courtyard. The homes had 2 or 3 rooms, with very little furniture. If they had any, it was usually beds, and maybe a table against the wall where they stacked pots or other items.  They cook over an open fire in the courtyard. The bathroom is a hole in the ground surrounded by a mud wall outside in the courtyard.  Many had animals such as goats, chickens, or pigs, which they raise and sell.  Almost all the homes we saw have a slate/blackboard on the wall for the kids to do homework on, as paper is scarce.

The other kind of home was a tiny home made of mudbricks.  These were the poorest families we saw.  They had little to no furniture, sleeping on mats on the floor.  During the rainy season, these homes often fall down!  When that happens, the families go stay in a nearby school building until the rains stop and they can re-build their home. They cook over a fire outside the home, and we didn't even see a wall for the bathroom. I think they just go out behind the house. 

Seeing the homes showed me that the families are working very hard just to survive.  Without sponsorship, these girls would probably not be going to school!  So glad Her Star Scholars can help!

New Backpacks!

(Heidi) I was able to visit Burkina Faso last week and met our girls that are sponsored.  I took with me a new backpack filled with goodies for each of the girls. Biba, our liaison, had a huge party for the girls and their parents so we could meet them all. It was great to see them!  We currently have 19 kids sponsored in Burkina Faso, and 18 of them were able to make the party. It was fantastic!