The Yoann Foundation: helping disabled women and children

Our project to support women in need, particularly mothers of disabled children, or women who are, themselves, disabled, is going very well.  Numbers are currently 20 women and 15 children.  
Help is given in a variety of ways: either direct

financial help, food aid or help to start up a small business, 
such as soap-making or some other activity which they feel 
they can do.  The women gather regularly, with their children, 
at the Franciscan Friary in Ouagadougou where they are given
the opportunity to meet with and talk to the team of 
volunteers who are administering this fund.  Part of the remit 
of this fund is to ensure that all the women and children are 
given the opportunity to meet socially, over a meal, in order 
for them to get to know each other, and therefore to help, support and befriend each other.  Women who are disabled or who have disabled children very quickly become isolated from the rest of society.  Therefore, bringing them together regularly, both in order to receive their aid and also to share in a big meal socially, has been a fantastic way of helping them to feel part of a loving family, accepted and understood, supported and loved.

Protecting and educating young women and girls

About a two-hour drive to the east of Ouagadougou is the Catholic Diocese of 
Koupéla where we currently have three projects: 1) a refuge providing protection 
to 27 young women, 2) putting girls through primary school and 3) putting girls 
through secondary school.

 A refuge: Young women, particularly from the

 more isolated villages, are very much at risk from 
 being forced into a marriage too young, often to
 men much older than themselves.  Les Amis funds a 
 refuge to which young women can turn if they feel
 they have no option but to run away from home for
 whatever reason.  At this refuge they are housed, 
 fed, educated and trained in skills to enable them to
 make a living for themselves. 

Primary school: the 20 girls we are putting through primary school are children

whose parents cannot afford to pay the fees.  The cost for putting just one girl

through primary school for a year is just £45.  This covers not only the fees but also

the cost of absolutely everything they need such as equipment, uniform (where there

is one) and food.

 Secondary school: the 10 girls we are putting
 through secondary school are there because they are 
 either orphans, lack a parent or have some other
 reason which makes being at home difficult.  At this
 school they are housed, fed and educated at a cost
 of just £200 per year per girl.

Further east, in the small town of Fada N’Gourma, we helped to finance a new building for a small primary school.  Their previous accommodation comprised six classrooms, four toilets and a kitchen.  We were happy to assist them with a new building which now provides them with a meeting room, a library, an administrative office and ICT provision.