Dear friends and sponsors of our AMPO children,
Greetings from Africa!
Here in Burkina Faso the situation has now stabilized. Politically speaking, things were very difficult in April, but the summer was relatively peaceful. The local elections are coming up soon and we hope that everything will remain calm and our children can continue to go to school unperturbed.
We were able to take in 14 new children into the orphanages and some of them are still looking for sponsor “parents” in Europe. There are lots of girls this time.
As always, we wait a few months before we allocate. This time we had to come up with a special solution for seven-year-old Patricia. She was extremely unhappy with us because she was missing her little sister whom she had always carried on her back and her little brother and was so homesick she cried all the time. She has now gone back to them and her grandmother. She has no other relatives. We pay for food and clothing for all of them and school fees for her. If they are ill they will of course come to our clinic. We will try again next year.
All the others have settled in well. I can tell because in the beginning they walk about quietly and a week later they start hopping across the courtyard. We then know that things will work out and they begin to feel at home with us. When they first come here they all have a medical examination, they talk to our psychologists and they are given clothing. This year we even have a school uniform for those who attend our own school, so that they all feel on an equal footing.
As far as the orphanages are concerned, everything is running smoothly under the reliable supervision of our teacher Mathias Zoré and our psychologist Christine Adamou. I am hardly needed at all there, apart from playing with the children at weekends. I read to the little ones, which is great fun because French is a foreign language for all of us, for me too and I’m trying to read Pippi Longstocking! The very names have us falling off our bench laughing.
With the older ones I have endless heated debates on subjects such as morality or responsible behaviour. They are all highly interested and they even skip football training to attend. Isn’t it wonderful?
The MIA and ALMA houses have also scored a success. We managed to reintegrate 15 out of 20 young girls into their families who had rejected them for reasons of local tradition. It was a hard job requiring months of patience and tact. Respect and politeness towards the chief of the clan and the father of the family is most important. We practise this every day (even if we are bursting with anger, it must not show). Our constant concern is for the wellbeing of all of our children. That is our number one priority.
Respect is also at the foundation of our new generation project, Emma Yiri, which will start operating as from December and will be officially opened mid January 2012 – hopefully by our new German Ambassador who has just taken office.
I go to the building site every other day and things are progressing well. However the building costs have increased immensely. Cement, wood and especially iron now cost about double our original estimate. We are very thrifty but the costs are simply escalating. Help!
I am confident that this new facility will be a huge success, especially since the project leader Ceverin Ouedraogo has already selected all the girls and the elderly women from many villages, much to the approval of our team of directors. Our secretary, Ricarda Dittrich from our office in Plön is here on a visit with her husband at the moment and after inspecting the project today, they too agreed that Emma Yiri will be something really special. This weekend we are expecting two potters from Italy. They are financing the pottery workshop and the kiln. They are going to meet our own potters here to take stock of the situation.
And so there is always a great deal to be done and we face many different challenges. At the farm we are going to plant an agave field soon. The agave is the plant of the future and I’m rapidly becoming a specialist.
Cooperation with our suppliers for the products we sell in the AMPO Shop is developing day by day. Nearly all of them are former AMPO kids who now have their own workshops. So whatever you buy from us goes to help their small families. It is not easy to get orders here in Ouagadougou and it really does help them if they can produce for the AMPO Shop. Please have a look at our new AMPO catalogue or visit our website www.sahel.de.
I have to go now. It has become a tradition for me to invite all the children who have passed their school leaving certificate exams to my home for a chicken dinner once a year, along with their tutors who of course played a major role. For some reason or other we missed it last year and now they are all shouting for their chicken! But we now have 25 kids plus their tutors and my small house can’t take them all. So this evening at 7 o’clock we are having the dinner at the AMPO restaurant.
To all of you sponsors I can only say it would be wonderful if you could just drop by to congratulate your ”adopted” children on their success.
Since that is not so easy to arrange I shall pass on your good wishes to the children on your behalf and we will raise a glass of hibiscus juice to your health. Please accept our thanks for your good deeds that have brought about this success.
I will be back in Europe again this year for a brief lecture visit of ten days in Denmark. My book has now appeared in Danish. Thanks to some old friends an AMPO Association has been founded in Denmark. This will give me the opportunity to hold my own two grandchildren in my arms, sadly only for a few hours. Then I have to stay here for a few months, over Christmas of course before I start on my travels again in 2012: lectures in Spain, Austria, Germany and – possibly even in the United States – are on the cards. Just imagine – Katrin in New York!
Who would have thought it when I once struck my tent in Germany to build a small orphanage here and lead a quiet, peaceful life?.
Instead I travel the world as a roving ambassador for children in Africa and a fierce champion for equal opportunities. But I do it all with pleasure. However, my favourite pastime is sitting quietly on the farm, watching the children play and listening to the trees growing.
All the AMPO children send you their thanks and best wishes in the runup to Christmas, wishing you time for your families, health and happiness.
Yours,
Katrin Rohde from Ouagadougou
SAHEL e.V.
Am Strohberg 2 • 24306 Plön • Tel.0 45 22 – 78 98 85 • Fax 0 45 22 – 78 98 86
Email: info.sahel@sahel.de Internet: www.sahel.de
Spendenkonto bei der Förde Sparkasse Plön: • Kto. Nr. 5785 • BLZ 210 501 70
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DE27 2105 0170 0000 005785 BIC (Bankidentifikation): NOLADE21KIE
