Burkina Faso

AGSP/Burkina Faso At a Glance:

• Program Start Date: February 2005
• Academic Focus: Primary and Secondary
• Academic Year Start: September
• Number of Local partners: 1
• Number of Scholarships to Date: 2,041 (Girls: 1,791 Boys: 250)
• Number of Schools: 24
• Number of Mentors: 56
• Geographic Focus: Koumandjari Province

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Basic Information

• School year calendar: September – July
• Target areas of assistance: Koumandjari Province
• World Education has relationships with local organization Tintua for implementation in Koumandjari Province. Fawe Burkina is currently handling 50 secondary school girls in the Kadiogo Province (Ougadougou)
• Agreement dates: September, 2007 – August, 2008
• Mentoring activities are ongoing, on track and include: remedial and evening classes, youth clubs, life skills building activities, HIV–AIDS, general health, and hygiene sensitization campaigns

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Program Overview

In Year 1, the AGSP in Burkina Faso provided 261 scholarships in the Eastern region of the country. Ms. Raoulatou Geraldo is the local AGSP consultant, working with Tintua, the local NGO implementing partner. In Year 2, there has been a significant increase in the number or scholarships awarded, from 261 to 460 girls. Additionally, mentoring activities have been on–going since year 2. In year 3, Tin–Tua and FAWE/Burkina distributed a total of 516 scholarships. In Year 4, the two partners distributed 554 scholarships to girls and 250 to boys. The two partners have also carried out mentoring activities for the scholarship recipients, both boys and girls.

World Education has relationships with local organization Tintua for implementation in Koumandjari Province. Fawe Burkina is currently handling 50 secondary school girls in the Kadiogo Province (Ouagadougou). Mentoring activities are ongoing, and include: remedial and evening classes, youth clubs, and life skills building activities, HIV–AIDS sensitization, general health, and hygiene campaigns.

New scholars, including boys, are selected through a transparent process where the community is widely informed and sensitized on AGSP goals, objectives and targets. The NGO, school administration and PTAs form a selection committee to select schools using established criteria. They establish local selection committees to select scholars. The selection forms are distributed to PTAs and schools for potential eligible girls and boys to fill out. The forms are submitted to NGO Tintua. The local selection committees convene a selection meeting and choose scholars according to AGSP criteria. The returning scholars are kept in the program until they graduate out of the cycle funded by the AGSP. The NGO, the consultant and PTAs conduct sample visits to verify physical existence of scholars.

In Year 4, with the inclusion of boys into the program, Tintua and FAWE/Burkina distributed a total of 804 scholarships, and strengthened mentoring activities. Community participation was heightened with communities growing enough produce to extend the feeding program beyond the AGSP students alone and include entire schools.

In collaboration with the local education authorities and PTAs, Tintua established local monitoring committees that are in charge of monitoring scholars' attendance, performance and usage of scholarship items in schools.

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Exemplary Practices

Tin Tua Practice: Community Discussions about AGSP during Distribution Ceremony

During distribution ceremonies, communities, teachers, and NGO discuss the importance of girls’ education and the impact of AGSP.

• PTA and Mothers Associations organize an official distribution ceremony and invite all community members and government officials to create an opportunity for discussion. Tin Tua works with teachers to remind stakeholders of AGSP's program objectives, to share information about school performance, and to discuss challenges for teachers and possible solutions.
• Tin Tua shares exemplary practices from other communities and emphasizes community support activities on key issues such as sex education, girls' education, and child trafficking.
• Tin Tua is transparent in sharing program information including scholarship and mentoring budgets, number of targeted scholarships, and targeted schools served.

Tin Tua Practice: Collaboration of Mothers' Associations, Schools and Community

Tin Tua supports the role of mothers in school management, girls' education, and program sustainability, and works hard on building the capacity of mothers' organizations toward current and future project activities..

• School & Community Gardens. Teachers organize students in working groups to tend to the school gardens while parents help with minor repairs and building fences. Seventy five percent (75%) of the garden produce is used for meals in the school canteen; 20% is sold to generate school revenue, and 5% is eaten at school by visitors, parents, and/or students who help out. Mothers Associations grow mil and peanuts to generate proceeds for school canteen ingredients.
• Soap Making & Micro–Credit. Mother's Association also started making and selling soap to purchase raw materials as well as capital funds for micro–credit lending for mothers (e.g. small businesses, cereal sales, etc.)
• Funding Proposals. Tin Tua has also worked on building the capacity of Mothers' Associations which has resulted in the submission of funding proposals, some of which received funding from Helen Keller International and Catholic Relief Services for the continuation of their activities.

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