FRIENDS OF BURKINA FASO INC

Friends of Burkina Faso's objective for this program service is to support as many postsecondary education/training scholarships as we have donations for each year for academically qualified young women from poor rural families to attend local universities or nursing, midwifery or primary school teacher training. Scholarships are provided through Global NEEED Burkina, a non-profit organization registered by the Government of Burkina Faso. Selection of scholarship recipients is made by Global NEEED Burkina in collaboration with the Government Department of Education. In the 11 years we have supported this program, all but four of the 216 scholarship recipients have successfully completed their training (or for those currently in training are successful in their current studies). In each of the four cases of non-completion, Global NEEED Burkina immediately worked with the educational/training institution to transfer any remaining funds to another financially needy young female student. Through Global NEEED Burkina, Friends of Burkina Faso receives from the education institutions the final year end grades for all of our scholarship recipients. In 2020, Friends of Burkina Faso donations supported the 2020-2021 school costs of 47 young women, including 10 university students, 18 midwifery students and 19 primary school teacher trainees. Scholarship funds are wired to Global NEEED Burkina on a yearly basis.

The objective of the program service was to provide very basic food assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Burkina Faso as a result of sharply increased terrorist attacks in villages in northern and eastern Burkina Faso in early 2020 until the government of Burkina Faso and international aid organizations would be able to respond to this rapidly developing crisis. In March 2020, through Friends of Burkina Faso's network of returned Peace Corps volunteers and friends of Burkina Faso, local communities were identified that had no resources available to respond to rapidly growing populations of IDPs arriving in their communities. Friends of Burkina Faso requested and received requests for proposals from known entities from these communities. All proposals were vetted by the Friends of Burkina Faso Board of Directors and were judged in terms of the relevance and justification of the proposals and costs. The requests were for basic food supplies (largely rice and oil), buckets, and woven mats. The five organizations that were funded were required to submit to Friends of Burkina Faso receipts for all purchases made, photos of the distribution of items purchased for the IDPs, and a final report of activities. As a result of this funding, approximately 3,950 IDPs received basic food supplies for a period of 3-5 months.