Fall 2023 Update

The 2022 – 2023 school year was a successful school year for middle and secondary school level girls at the Lycée Moderne de l’Amitie and for girls enrolled in universities in Burkina Faso as well as those enrolled in midwifery training.

·         At the Lycée Moderne de l’Amitie (LMA):

• Your donations enabled us to provide school lunches for 195 girls throughout the school year.   81.08% of middle school students passed their final middle school exams, enabling them to go on to secondary school; and 86.75% of secondary school students passed the BAC in science and 76.34% in literature and philosophy, qualifying them for postsecondary education/training.  The combination of learning conditions (including a noon meal, high academic standards and committed teachers and students) are crucial to this success.

• Thanks to a special donation, we supported the middle and secondary school education of an additional 111 girls living in camps for internally displaced persons in the Ouahigouya area due to the forced fleeing of their families from the jihadist violence in their villages in northern Burkina.  97.3% of these girls passed year-end exams, enabling them to go on to their next year of schooling. 

·         Scholarships for postsecondary education/training

• All 19 scholarship recipients (3 university students and 16 midwifery trainees) are progressing satisfactorily in their studies/training.

The 2023-2024 school year

·         At the Lycée Moderne de l’Amitie (LMA):

Thanks to our generous donors, we are able to fund school lunches for 200 village girls and continue our support for the education of 111 middle and secondary school girls living in camps for internally displaced persons.

·         Scholarships for postsecondary education/training

Your donations are supporting scholarships for 20 young women: five at the university (one in agronomy, three in biomedical science and one in banking/finance), and 15 in midwifery training.

IN SUMMARY: WHY WE SUPPORT GIRLS’ EDUCATION

According to the UN Fund for Population Activities, the education of young village women:

• is the most influential factor in improving child health and reducing infant mortality, leading to healthier families, lower levels of fertility and the next generation of children attaining higher levels of education.

• empowers these women with the knowledge, skill and self-confidence necessary to participate fully in community to national development.

The education of village girls/young women supported by Global NEEED Burkina has an additional and important multiplier effect as young women who have completed postsecondary education/training report assuming responsibility for the education of younger siblings. 

Lycée Moderne de l’Amitie (LMA)

Over the past 17 years of this school’s existence, the percentage of students of the LMA who have passed year-end national exams has been on average twice that of students attending all other middle and secondary schools in the region.  The combination of learning conditions (including a noon meal, high academic standards and committed teachers and students) are crucial to this success.

Scholarships for postsecondary education/training. 

Since 2010, 276 young women from poor rural families in northern Burkina Faso have received postsecondary education/training scholarships thanks to donors to Friends of Burkina Faso (2010-2021) and to Burkina Faso Girls’ Education Fund (2021-present).  Of the four who did not complete their studies, one was successfully replaced. The remaining 273 scholarship recipients include:

• 40 young women: university educations (in the fields of law, medicine, English, science and technology, business communication, geography, modern literature, agronomy, finance/accounting, management, engineering, computer engineering, civil engineering, biomedical science and banking/finance)

• 15 young women: nursing training

• 80 young women: midwifery training

• 138 young women: primary school teacher training.  (Support for primary school teacher training was suspended in 2021 as many rural primary schools were closed due to terrorist attacks.  The government has thus been unable to provide 2nd year practical training for large numbers of primary school teacher trainees.)

** 213 of these women have completed their studies and 60 are currently in school/training.

** From anecdotal reports, virtually all of the young women who have completed their studies have found employment.