Thank you very much for the presents.

New Year's greeting 2012

The girls from AMPO-Annexe

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
Internationale Bankverbindung: IBAN (Konto-Nr.):
DE27 2105 0170 0000 005785 BIC (Bankidentifikation): NOLADE21KIE

I hope you are all well, that you are enjoying the summer with your families in Europe and you have managed to shuffle off your daily cares for the time being. Here at AMPO we are in the midst of preparations for our summer camp in the country which will take place on July 15th for two weeks. We are busy packing boxes with Frisbees, Monopoly, bowls and Scrabble, hundreds of bars of soap, medicines and books and lots of sticking plaster. The various kitchens can only be packed up at the last minute because we still need our huge cooking pots every day. However, they are being used to store dried gombo and sacks of rice, because they are more expensive in the country than here in the city.

The cost of living has gone up by more than 30% in Burkina Faso and that is the reason for the general unrest which is being expressed in many demonstrations – peaceful at the moment.

This time we are travelling with all the children from the orphanages, plus the people from MIA and ALMA and the children form the rehab centre, some of them physically handicapped, who don’t have a home to go to. All the teachers from the various projects are coming with us this time, so we need busses and accommodation for about 280 people, large and small.

Thank God for our usual modesty, so we rent an empty school building and can sleep in the classrooms. It’s a good job we don’t have beds at AMPO because the kids would otherwise have problems changing to sleeping on simple mats. Everyone is getting excited already and some have started making fishing rods and skipping ropes. The bigger ones help the small ones – something we are really good at. As a surprise on the day we set off I’m going to buy 40 drums for the kids, because they will then have time to practise. All the kids who have just left school (now young adults) will give us a hand at summer camp.

In the past few months the children have been very nervous because they were unable to go to school for six whole weeks on account of the unrest in the country. Shots were being fired on the road leading to school. Fear is not very conducive to concentration. At AMPO were able to carry on with schoolwork every day thanks to the private tutors and this was a great help: yesterday the results of the CEP exams (after 6 years at school) came through and all 8 AMPO children passed. We are now waiting for our BPC and high school diploma results. It is looking good. We are very happy with the children; they express their thanks to us and to all of you with a really good performance.

We are already looking forward to the new intake of youngsters who are currently in the selection process conducted by at team of psychologists and teachers. It is a lot of work, because we cannot take everything at face value and we visit all the candidates at home to check on all the information. We only take the very poorest children. At the same time AMPO has to start with the organisation of tuition fee assistance for external children, which costs around Euro 20,000 a year. This is the result of the truly generous donation from the Jack-O company which makes it possible for 500 children to attend primary school and a further 200 to attend high school. We only assist those who already perform well because we want our country to make progress. Lazy kids have no chance. In the meantime we have entered all the names and records into our computer – the advance of technology – but it would be nice, however if we also had the electricity supply to go with it every day. Sometimes we are still without electricity for 4 to 6 hours a day.

There has been a lot of remodeling going on at AMPO this year, because the workshop for the handicapped is scheduled to move, the tailoring workshop is expanding and has to move, the children’s kitchen will move into the tailoring workshop and we will set up a new hairdressing salon to train our girls, something that has been on the wish-list for a long time and now we can make it happen. The restaurant kitchen will expand, which is urgently required, because our trainee chefs are tripping over each other. Have you ever seen a restaurant with 60 places, catering at the same time for 300 guests at an embassy reception, with a kitchen of 3 square metres? Outside temperature 45° and working over a hot stove? African logistics can be dramatic, but let me tell you, it works! Things should be easier now, however.

The first buildings in the new “Emma Yiri” generation project are complete. After the third attempt at drilling we found a good supply of water 48 metres down. Thank God and Inshallah! Everything was depending on that and I spent 3 whole days quaking beside the drilling site … all went well. Now we are waiting for the first heavy rains to pass and then we can start building the school and the office in August. Parts of the wall are already quite colourful. It will probably be completed in October. Meanwhile I have to make another two trips to Europe, lecturing in Portugal and Denmark.

In the meantime it has become official: after careful examination (over several days), Katrin Rohde has become an Ashoka Fellow, with approval from Washington. You might want to Google it. I am in the illustrious company of 2000 other changemakers from 70 countries. I have just returned from a 4-day conference in Paris to which I was invited. This conference involved a huge amount of work and I could think of nothing other than making progress in Africa. That is exactly where I fit in with all my ideas, something which does not happen very often. In the picture you can see our special working group on Africa after a 2-hour meeting, people with the most incredible ideas, including on the right a Belgian from Tanzania and Mozambique who breeds rats to detect landmines, a woman from Uganda who protects gorillas by giving the local population who eat them the possibility to access other sources of income. In the middle is Bill Drayton, the founder of Ashoka, an elderly gentleman full of charisma, a highly motivated, satisfied professional. Ashoka Fellows tackle the problems of others and develop practical models: A young girl, 16 years old, is told she has cancer and she sets up a global network “Girls for girls” in which, 2 years down the line, 4,500 girls can talk about their problems and come up with solutions. An elderly Turkish farmer plants 8 hectares of wheat using organic farming methods and starts a lobby group in which after 4 years there are now 50,000 farmers in Turkey apply organic farming methods. He is illiterate and only speaks Turkish. I received the award for the idea and implementation of our Tondtenga farm, offering young people in the country a chance to prevent rural exodous, combat the streetkid phenomenon and set up hundreds of organic farms with young farmers who spread the idea among their neighbours in turn.

Nevertheless I felt very small and I am aware that there is still a lot of work ahead. We are now going to set up an Ashoka radio station for the whole of Africa. I am highly motivated and grateful when I see after 20 years that many of our orphaned children have turned into trend-setting young people, precisely those with whom we will have a real future. I believe that we can still work on our current model for a better Africa.

Of course, hand in hand with all of you. Isn’t it exciting? But first we are off to summer camp, yippee! Thanks to all your help we will relax, hang around doing nothing, sing and play and look forward to the coming year with renewed vigour.

With very best wishes from Ouagadougou,
Katrin Rohde

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
Internationale Bankverbindung: IBAN (Konto-Nr.):
DE27 2105 0170 0000 005785 BIC (Bankidentifikation): NOLADE21KIE

Dear AMPO friends, donors to our children in Burkina Faso and contributors,

I trust this letter finds you all well.

Here in West Africa times are uncertain and this makes me realize how much you support us with your kind thoughts. A curfew was imposed for four nights, but it was lifted again yesterday. We could hear a lot of gunfire, pistols, rifles, mortar fire. It is quite uncanny in the stillness of the night.

A few weeks ago there was an incident in Koudougou which resulted in student protests. Police stations and court buildings were wrecked and the protests spread to other towns. These demonstrations clearly showed how dissatisfied students and schoolchildren are with their living conditions and they were joined by the military. Schools were closed for four weeks. School fees have increased year by year and the military is badly treated and poorly paid. The cost of living is rising unbelievably. Banks and petrol stations closed. How was I supposed to pay wages and salaries?

Temperatures rose for a few weeks in more ways than one, because at the same time the thermometer went up to 48 degrees – strenuous for everyone in this country where patience is running low and nerves are frayed.

On top of that there were the uprisings in Libya, Syria and in many other countries and – the worst for us – in the Ivory Coast. More than three million people from Burkina Faso live there and nearly everyone here has a relative there. These are our direct neighbours and hundreds of people lost their lives there during the civil war, one of the most terrible wars of all. For all that, Burkina Faso is one of the most peaceful countries on earth where acceptance and genuine tolerance are part of the basis of our daily life.

Again the President started by listening for days to everyone in authority, from the judiciary to the military and religious leaders and that helped to calm the situation. In churches and in mosques, on the radio and on television people pray together for peace and for that I love dear, old Burkina. The curfew was raised yesterday. I was in town in the evening and the place was jumping. Everyone was celebrating the return to freedom.

Let’s see how things go on from here. We are following closely the developments in the Ivory Coast, hoping and praying that the fighting will finally stop and the country returns to peace.

So much for that situation. Here at AMPO life goes on. Since all the schools were closed, the only concession we made was to shift the children’s extra tuition to daytime and the children were no longer allowed to sleep outdoors, which they normally like to do when it gets so hot. But it was too dangerous with bullets flying around and with murmurs of protest they had to give up their wonderful, huge spread of communal mats under our mango tree.

The schools are due to start up again today. We made good use of the time and practically covered the entire curriculum with the AMPO children day by day, so they are well prepared – but what about the others? Prior to these events I spent ten days in Spain on a lecture tour around Alicante. Our friends there prepared the trip well and I am very pleased to report that our project for undernourished children is funded for next year. Thank goodness, because 2400 babies and infants were striving to survive. All but one succeeded and our heartfelt thanks go to Spain.

Another container has just arrived and in addition to the large boxes of clothing sent regularly by Bonita, there were tools, lots of pens and pencils, hand-knitted baby jackets, sports equipment, sewing machines and office equipment. Large quantities of spectacles came from Germany and the Czech Republic as well as toys and jotters for the children.

One kind lady donated 200 road-safety jackets; DEKRA sent a load of reflectors and “cappies” so that all our children are now well protected on their way to school. In this city of 2 million inhabitants there is not a single pedestrian crossing and nearly all of the children have to cross a 4-lane road on the way to school, a task that demands a great deal of patience and considerable attention, even for adults. We also received a full set of new equipment for our kinesiology therapist in the rehab centre. Roc said this was unique in Burkina Faso, with all these racks and other technical apparatus, even the large hospital is not so well equipped. Many thanks! Some of it will go to the children’s hospital. This time we had enough willing hands to unpack the container, because the children were off school, of course. Once again we would like to thank all those who sent parcels, those very kind sponsors and other donors.

Fortunately I was able to make sure before I left that the famous wall around our new Emma Yiri project is almost complete. The remainder of the building supervision was left in the reliable hands of my husband. The agricultural students from the Tondtenga farm have already planted 80 trees for their little sisters, an enormous job given the tough soil we have. The trees are watered twice a day by our lovely old neighbour with our donkey, Uschi, hauling the water barrel. Each tree is surrounded by a small fence, otherwise they would have been eaten long ago by the goats roaming around freely. At the end of the week we’ll start painting the wall in the various colours according to the wishes of you, our donors. It is so exciting. The simple colours like red, pink, yellow, blue, orange, white, black, turquoise, lilac, ruby red, terracotta and olive green, bright green, mint green, etc. we’ll paint together with the children. Special wishes are a bit trickier, like the German tricolor “black, red and gold” (you can’t get gold paint in Burkina Faso) or neon green (no neon paint here either). And how on earth am I supposed to fit the words “Women for peace” in English, German and More into three metres? We will have to find an African solution to all of these problems. I’m really looking forward to it. It will be great fun. Yesterday afternoon I visited the MIA and ALMA homes and was pleased to note that things were quiet and running smoothly there.

I went to the farm school in the morning. There are 18 piglets, four white and brown calves and a black foal named Fofo (in the language of the Peul, Fulfulde, this means “welcome”). And so we are surrounded by hope.

Hope along with us, stay with us and receive our heartfelt thanks Yours,
Katrin Rohde from Ouagadougou

***

To all our donors and friends of Sahel e.V. and AMPO,

as you can tell from what Katrin Rohde writes, everything is going well at AMPO in spite of the difficult times in Burkina Faso. At the office we have completed the statement of account for the year ending 2010. The annual reports for each AMPO facility have been translated and together with the activity report for Sahel e.V., they are now accessible on our website www.sahel.de

You will also find the itinerary for Katrin Rohde’s lecture tour in Germany in May 2011. Perhaps you may be able to participate in one or other of the events with Katrin Rohde. You will be most welcome. One final item worth mentioning – we have been registered on the “Bildungsspender” internet portal for some time now. Here you have the possibility to support us quite simply when you purchase on the internet.
Visit http://www.bildungsspender.de/ampo
Please contact us if you have any questions or comments.

Wishing you lots of spring sunshine, thanks for your support and very best wishes,
Ricarda Dittrich and Sabine Duwe from the office in Plön.

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
Internationale Bankverbindung: IBAN (Konto-Nr.):
DE27 2105 0170 0000 005785 BIC (Bankidentifikation): NOLADE21KIE

Dear friends of AMPO,

Here you have a somewhat longer letter from Africa – an extra delivery, so to speak. First of all, the most important news is that all the AMPO children are doing well. This is my 50th newsletter to friends and donors of our children’s projects in Ouagadougou. It makes me proud to think that so far all of us have done a good job, you wherever you are and we here.

Let me take this opportunity to tell you about a recently planned project in BF. Actually I had sworn a solemn oath not to start any new projects. The idea was to develop and continue the work we already started, taking time to plan ahead. I usually keep my promises but this time I had no choice. In recognition of our efforts to help the flood victims the year before last, the Mayor expressed the thanks of the community by donating a piece of land, 3,200 m², for social development. This is an incredibly generous gift here in Ouagadougou, where standard properties are 250 m². I could not refuse.

Piece of land

After careful consideration the following plan emerged.
The property lies on the outskirts of the capital and there we intend to set up a small vegetable farm for twenty girls and five elderly women, beggars currently living in appalling circumstances. We want to do something to combat rural exodus, because the girls will be able to pass on their knowledge of eco-friendly agriculture and small livestock farming when they return to their own villages later. We have already achieved tremendous results applying this system in our larger agricultural college for boys.

The young girls will look after the elderly women, who in turn will be able to advise them on the tried and tested traditions that are slowly dying for want of being handed down. So it will be a farm for several generations. We have also included a small pottery workshop, because pottery can be done without much effort later in the villages and will provide a source of income.

Dear friends of AMPO, most of you will not yet have heard of this new project. Last year we started to raise money for the surrounding outer wall which is an absolute must in Africa. We are selling it by the metre and we are about half way so far. Each metre costs 80 Euros and the buyer can choose the colour. Bright red, peppermint green, dark blue, this wall will be the only one of its kind in Burkina Faso.

We also have the funding for digging the well and for some of the buildings including the pottery workshop.
After twenty years’ experience of development aid in this country I can safely say that it is relatively easy to find donors for a house, a well, or even a chicken coop. At the end of the day donors like to receive a positive report, details of the cost estimates and paid bills and a real photo of the actual project they have financed. I can understand that. Even the German Government provides only technical support rather than operating social facilities in Africa.

Many of the donated buildings in this country are standing empty because no one is there to provide financial support to continue the project. This is not only a great pity, but also a sign of lack of confidence in Africa, and rightly so in my opinion. In this country with an illiteracy rate of 80% (how do you write out a receipt? Often people sign by putting three crosses or their thumbprint.) it is extremely difficult to do proper bookkeeping and keep expenditure under strict control. AMPO can do it. Many years of practice enables us to pass any audit with flying colours.

It is a much tougher challenge, however, to put life into a house. Young people need so much support to be able to fend for themselves later in life. Over the past 15 years AMPO has shown that it is possible to offer a future to kids who have already been written off. Only yesterday I had a visit from Bouba, an orphan who grew up at AMPO. He successfully finished school and went on to qualify as a male nurse and he has now been working for three years 400 kilometres away, practically in the desert in the north of the country. He is second in charge of a hospital unit treating all kinds of poverty-related illnesses without such luxuries as laboratory test results and x-rays, helping to bring children into the world by the light of a paraffin lamp. He is relentless. Next year he will go back to college to train for two years as an “attaché de santé”, a well-paid job in this country.

These people are the future of Africa. And these are the people we want to find for the new farm project for girls.
We are still lacking the 3,100 Euros per month to finance the project. That covers everything from medical expenses to breakfast porridge, rabbit food and the trainers‘salaries, wellington boots and seed for planting.

The bottom line is 37,000 Euros per year which could be spread over a number of donors. Based on my experience I have never started a project without the necessary finances for daily requirements for the first three years. This is the reason I’m informing you of our plans, hoping that you will trust in AMPO. Many of you are regular donors and spread the word among your friends, so that year for year our number of friends increases. Any additional contribution to this new project should not detract from the other „regular“ donations you make, as this would have an adverse effect on the ongoing expenditure we have for the rest of the children. We are talking about an extra donation. If we could come up with twelve donors contributing 3,100 Euros each per year, it would be enough to support the entire farm project and its inhabitants for at least one year. We are waiting for this security before we complete the building project.

“Dieu est grand”, as we say and I do believe that. I would like to send out a signal in the form of this unique wall. I think if we don’t start building the wall now, I will have to return the property to the Mayor. No way! The rainy season starts in May and any building activity is then out of the question. And I’m sure that by October we will have enough generous people who wish to give our girls a chance. If we roll our sleeves up – and we can – the new project should be up and running early 2012.

I delight in all of you, every day from morning till night, because without you AMPO and the very life of our orphans and literally thousands of other people would be inconceivable. In our clinic alone (I know exactly because we are just doing our annual statistics) we treated more than 60,000 patients in 2010. In our social service centre we listen to the concerns of nearly 100,000 people, mostly women and mothers. In many cases we come up with solutions together.

And we will find donors for our new girls’ farm, of that I am certain. As always in our case, it is a small project. And it should grow and develop in an African way. Major projects often fail in the reality of life in the raw dealing with such poverty. The concept on which all of our facilities are based has proved to be successful after 15 years of work. You can contact Sabine Duwe in our office at any time for further information on figures, budgetary plans, individual costs, official applications, and any outstanding items. She knows it all and we work very closely together.

The name of the new project is “Emma Yiri”, Emma’s farm, and Emma is my newly-born granddaughter.

I hope you have an especially good day, ploughing over our latest ideas.

Yours from Ouagadougou,
Katrin Rohde

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
Internationale Bankverbindung: IBAN (Konto-Nr.):
DE27 2105 0170 0000 005785 BIC (Bankidentifikation): NOLADE21KIE

Dear friends and sponsors of our orphans in Ouagadougou,

Let me begin this newsletter the way all the children are taught in school in Burkina Faso: “My heart is full of joy as I sit down to tell you of what is new in our lives.” This is the standard way of starting a letter from Africa. Indeed it is usually true the three or four times I write to you every year and my news to you today is particularly good.

Everything is going smoothly here at AMPO, the children and all the staff are doing well and we can look back on a beautiful, eventful summer, as we hope you can too. At least the weather in Europe was fine for a while. We hope you were able to take advantage of the good weather and enjoy many days outdoors.

Now for some private news. You may have heard that my son John and his long-standing girlfriend got married here in Africa. Even by African wedding standards, this event was a very special and especially large celebration with more than a thousand guests. It was particularly touching to see many of the poorest people among the guests. There were of course huge presents from the more well-to-do, but the “real Africa” was represented by neighbours and women’s groups. They came in groups and proudly presented their gifts of hard-earned money (roughly equivalent to 1.50 Euros). This was truly wonderful and I look upon it as a sign of esteem and respect for the decades of work we have done here. The happy couple did not spend this money. It will be put aside for their newly-born daughter for a special occasion later in her life. Yes, Katrin has become a grandmother again and now has two wonderful granddaughters, Mia aged 12 and Emma 12 days old today! On such occasions we say: God is great! This summer however, my mother passed away and I flew to Germany to close up her apartment and to arrange the funeral. This was a sad time for me, because I miss her a lot, although I realise her time had come and I am able to let go. Here we say: “May Mother Earth rest lightly on her”.

Back to AMPO and Africa. Shortly after my return we seemed to find like a blessing many good solutions to long outstanding problems here in Africa. Bureaucracy here is an extremely tiring business, much more than in Germany. Five years ago we had a case of theft to do with the AMPO bookkeeping. The Department of Social Services however was adamant in claiming the large amount of fines for late payment, although we repaid all our contributions promptly and to the last cent. But we finally came through. We have an official letter confirming we are free from debt to the State. We ourselves, Sahel e.V. in Germany and the DZI are now happy and contented. It was a triumph of diplomacy. I also succeeded in reducing the burden of land tax on our property. Our NGO status for tax purposes was finally confirmed by the State.

Suddenly, after witnessing the accidental death of a young girl. I realized that this also involved me somehow. The accident statistics are increasingly disastrous in this city where many streets are being tarmacked all at once. It dawned on me that we still have the traffic films and the radio sketches for children we recorded years ago. How could I be so negligent and do nothing? Within an hour I had an appointment with the Chief of Police and another with the Mayor. I must have been convincing, because only three days later AMPO was sitting round the table with four enthusiastic school inspectors. The day after tomorrow will see the start of a hitherto unknown education campaign on road traffic in the capital. Our films will be shown on television (subjects like: Why shouldn’t five people ride on one moped?). Our radio sketches will be broadcast in six local languages (Take hands and look left before crossing the road.) three times a day on two radio stations for a month. Two teams of AMPO members and policemen in uniform are travelling round 30 primary schools three times a week with German policeman puppets (with carefully blackened faces) and lots of music and noise. We will pay the costs of the project for the first three months to the tune of 2,000 Euros (so little money for so many children’s lives) and for the coming year we have already applied for grants from the Japanese and German embassies. We’ll see what happens. I wish we had those terrific reflector jackets the school beginners have in Germany.

21 new children have now started in our two orphanages and they are attending school for the first time, happy yet apprehensive. They too will have new sponsors next year and this brings us to a delicate topic. All of the AMPO tutors would like to have the children contact their sponsors by post. As long as the kids are under our supervision they are urged never to ask for anything. This is only right and proper, because each child is equipped with everything he needs for everyday life. They certainly don’t need cameras, MP3 players, cellphones and iPods. How could they afford the upkeep? We have a problem with our youngsters contacting their sponsors by e-mail. This is where the tutors no longer have control and often it is the sisters or others from the family who suddenly try to get 500 Euros via the e-mail addresses of the sponsors. The sponsors get upset and call the office in Plön, not knowing how to cope with the situation – we don’t either. Every young person leaving our orphanages is supported for at least another year outside, thanks to your many contributions. Very good students are provided with further education up to university. Some of these kids turn to their sponsors for financial support, although that is not necessary.

This is why we prefer to discourage contact by e-mail. The objective of our training and education is not to make our young people dependent on sponsors. Each AMPO youngster who buckles down to work can earn his own living in his early twenties and is even able to support his family. That is why we start very early on with vocational guidance. All our tutors are very observant and try to promote individual talent when they see it. I really hope you understand the issues involved here. African children, especially our orphans, do not live on the same plane as Europeans. It is not good to spoil them, because they have to fend for themselves later. Our great success is due to this consistent approach to upbringing.

We also managed to come up with a solution for two of our long-term problem kids. Not every child is brilliant at school (although some of ours are), some are not quite so clever or even psychologically impaired. In many cases this is due to poor nutrition in infancy. These children are hindered in their development. In such cases we have to find individual solutions, even if the person concerned already left us four years ago. This topic is always on the agenda at our directors’ meetings and is subject to hours of discussion. First and foremost I am delighted about the way our directors tackle their work with a sense of responsibility. When I just got back from a long trip to Europe I put my usual question to the group with my initial concern: “So, what are the crises and catastrophes?” (Nothing unusual for us.) They all looked at each other and shook their heads. A moment of incredulity on my part and we all burst out laughing. For the first time in almost 18 years working in Africa, the directors had coped with their catastrophes themselves. Oh happy day!

I hope this period of calm lasts a little. We returned replenished after the summer and are geared to face our daily challenges. Part of this has to do with confidence. And if there is one thing I can wish you for the coming months it is confidence and self-assurance – apart of course from health, which is most important of all.

With every good wish from Ouagadougou
Yours,
Katrin Rohde
plus appendages (300 children at present)

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
Internationale Bankverbindung: IBAN (Konto-Nr.):
DE27 2105 0170 0000 005785 BIC (Bankidentifikation): NOLADE21KIE

Katrin Rohde – Stiftung
Am Strohberg 2 • 24306 Plön • Tel. 0 45 22 – 50 82 34 • Fax: 0 45 22 – 50 837
Email: info@katrin-rohde-stiftung.de Internet: www.katrin-rohde-stiftung.de
Spendenkonto bei der Förde Sparkasse Plön:
• Kto. Nr. 100 203 595 BLZ 210 501 70, IBAN (Konto-Nr.): DE21 2105 0170 0100 20395 BIC: NOLADE21KIE

I am writing this newsletter with the World Cup in mind. You can well imagine the roar that goes up at AMPO every time a goal is scored.

We have raised the flags of all our donor countries, Denmark and Spain, Switzerland and Canada, Austria, England and especially Germany, of course, whose soccer team is the favourite of all the children.

Most of our boys know the German league table by heart. The AMPO fans of Werder and Bavaria follow every game and great groans can be heard if the ball lands in the wrong net. Thank goodness it is already school holidays and the kids can watch football whenever they like. During term time they can only watch television for two hours a week.

This year 21 young people will leave the orphanages and another 15 girls and their children will leave the MIA and ALMA houses. All of them are given a bicycle and continued support for one to three years, depending on their training.

Three of them will go to nursing school and seven to primary teacher training college. For some others we will finance another year at school or in exceptional cases an entire study course. The others are trained as tailors or weavers, mechanics or carpenters. Their final year is financed by AMPO, including board and lodging, medical care, etc. Thank goodness the BONITA Company is our major donor for training programmes, for without them it would not be possible. Our thanks go to Hamminkeln!

We had a team of Spaniards staying with us for a week. Two of them set up our new optical unit. We now have machines for the correct measurement and fitting of lenses. The proud head of this new unit is Kabré Aziz, who grew up as an orphan in one of our homes and is today a state certified nurse with an added optician’s qualification.

The unit opened last week and our intention was to have a couple of days‘ trial with our children to see whether our young newly-fledged opticians are masters of their trade. The drums of Africa put paid to our plans. Our reputation had gone on ahead and on the first day there was a queue of 150 people needing glasses in front of the door. No problem! We gave them appointments over the next two weeks, because each treatment takes a good half hour including measuring and fitting. The “Opticiens sans frontieres” are extremely friendly and very capable. They have already set up similar units to ours in Latin America, India and elsewhere in Africa. They approached us last year, having already installed such a unit in Bobodioulasso, and were on the lookout for a reliable structure in the capital. AMPO of course is reliable and we are very pleased to earn their praise and recognition.

The opticians were accompanied by two highly-skilled IT experts who nearly tore their hair out when they discovered 46, 000 viruses in our secretary’s computer alone. This is mainly the fault of our USB sticks which enable these viruses to circulate easily from one computer to the next. Our grid in Africa is also so weak that we have problems sending many things.

They set to work. Within a week we installed 350 metres of cable and now our bookkeeping (responsible for sending our monthly accounts to the office in Germany), our secretary, the German section with Nicole, of course, and the children’s computer room are all connected online – a miracle! Even our restaurant has become a cybercafé and anyone with a password can connect a laptop – the first customers have been sitting there since this morning.

Thanks to the Spaniards! One of the IT experts will come back at the end of August to complete the work. There will probably be a webcam installed soon in the road outside the orphanages so everyone can see what sort of weather we’re having and what we are up to. It all goes to show that AMPO is moving with the times.

Meanwhile back on the farm, our freshly trained young farmers left to go back home to their villages and 80 new recruits took their place. The director and myself were there this morning to welcome them. From a distance of about one kilometer our stallion came riding towards us, in keeping with the custom here when welcoming a high-ranking guest. He then galloped on ahead of us to show us the way. All along the driveway stood the boys, visibly proud in their new work clothes, dungarees and wellingtons, some wearing their large work gloves, clapping and drumming. They introduced themselves in groups and I held a rousing speech.
Our success is there for all to see. Of the 160 boys who have returned to their villages so far as ecologically trained young farmers, not one has gone back to life on the streets. All of them are back where they belong – with their families. At home they demonstrate how to achieve a good crop without expensive artificial fertilizers and without insecticides. Because of intensive use of these products the soil has become tired and they wonder why. Now many people are reverting to traditional methods, along with the input of the young AMPO farmers working with the latest findings in tropical agriculture. This was in fact my initial idea behind the agricultural college. Now thanks to the generous support of the Dr.Elvire Engel Foundation in Luxemburg everything is running smoothly, because the Tondtenga farm is a cost-intensive project.

Katrin Rohde at the optician‘s

We are now planning a new facility along similar lines, but a quarter of the size. If the truth be known I had no intention of building anything new, but in recognition of the good work done by AMPO during the flood disaster, the state donated a plot of land on the outskirts of the city. After long and careful consideration we decided to set up a small ecological farm for 25 girls with a vegetable garden and facilities for breeding chickens and rabbits. The plan is to accommodate five elderly women without a family as well, so that they can help with the gardening and give advice. At the same time, the young girls can look after the elderly ladies. That is the idea, at least.

The first thing we want to do is to build a large surrounding wall. This costs 80 Euros per metre. If you know of anyone who might sponsor the wall, they can decide on the colour of their metre and their name will be etched into the cement. Wouldn’t that be a good birthday present for your best friend? You will be sent a photograph, but only once we have collected enough money, probably at the beginning of next year, I guess…

At the beginning of June I returned to Ouagadougou after a refreshing time of five weeks in Germany, arriving just in time for the start of the rainy season. This time my journey went very well without pain after my knee operation (five weeks carrying a suitcase) and five weeks of well attended lectures. I’d like to thank all those who helped, especially Gerolf Wolpmann (Bremen Überseemuseum) and the inspiring Elfriede Orda who captured all our hearts with her charm. She organized an extremely successful gala evening at the ethnological museum in Munich. I seem to be getting to the age when I’m being exhibited in museums….

I started the tour greatly encouraged by our Annual General Meeting, because 40 members of our charity were unanimous: AMPO is on the right track. The accounts and figures are in order according to the external German auditor; the clinic is doing its job properly, applying high standards of hygiene in treating the patients in need.
My book has just been published by a new publishing house, thanks to Gaby von Malottki who did most of the work. A new chapter has been added and there are some new photographs. It is due to appear as an e-book in Spanish – as I said before: AMPO is moving with the times.

We have new flyers, a new brochure, an improved webpage, all our members and sponsors are motivated. At this point I would like to thank in particular our active board members of the charity and the foundation for their constructive thoughts and for the work they put in to drawing up new statutes and promoting all of our projects in general.

In spite of the global credit crunch we are continuing our work in Africa and I thank you all as always for your confidence in AMPO here in Ouagadougou. As before, our priority is the orphans, the abandoned, abused children who receive any help we can give.

I know that you are firmly on our side, our dear friends: our circle is growing and you are spreading the word. We notice this because of the growing number of new donors. Please accept our heartfelt thanks. As usual we do need as much support as possible in any form. There are so many children who come to us with serious problems.

Helping AMPO is contagious – in the best sense of the word!
All of us here wish you in Europe a lovely summer, quality time spent with your families so that you relax and gain strength to get back to your everyday lives.

With many blessings from Africa,
Yours,
Katrin Rohde

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
Internationale Bankverbindung: IBAN (Konto-Nr.):
DE27 2105 0170 0000 005785 BIC (Bankidentifikation): NOLADE21KIE

Katrin Rohde – Stiftung
Am Strohberg 2 • 24306 Plön • Tel. 0 45 22 – 50 82 34 • Fax: 0 45 22 – 50 837
Email: info@katrin-rohde-stiftung.de Internet: www.katrin-rohde-stiftung.de
Spendenkonto bei der Förde Sparkasse Plön:
• Kto. Nr. 100 203 595 BLZ 210 501 70, IBAN (Konto-Nr.): DE21 2105 0170 0100 20395 BIC: NOLADE21KIE

Dear friends of the children in Burkina Faso,

I would love to count all the newsletters I have written to you in the past. I used to write three or four a year, going back to 1998, and I’m sure we are heading for a jubilee. Unfortunately I’m having problems accessing the internet again (the newsletters are all on our website) because our hometown at the edge of the desert has problems with electricity, the telephone network and with water. For days on end there is no contact by mail with the charity in Germany and with all of you. In addition, there are power cuts lasting three to six hours every day and every night. This is usually followed by such a power surge and many a fridge or hard disk has to be replaced unless someone has remembered to disconnect it. You cannot work properly under these circumstances and there are many civil servants who just get out their newspapers or disappear off for lunch during the morning. This does not happen at AMPO of course because we always have something to do even if it is only tidying up the stores and drawers.

So much for the minor problems of everyday life. By contrast there are no problems at the moment with the children themselves. Most of them are working hard at school. Jacob and Andrea are in the middle of final exams. Ali has been away for three years and is just coming to the end of his college course to be a top level administrator. He came to me full of concern, saying he needed a suit for the graduation ceremony. Since he started his studies he has been living very modestly on 15 Euros a month. He got his suit, of course, together with shoes, socks and a tie. Mariam is finishing her training as a bookkeeper and has first-class reports to prove it. She won’t have difficulty finding a job. Balima is a good tailoress, having just completed her apprenticeship, bursting with ideas and very precise in her work. Looking to the future with confidence, she wants to be self-employed and she will take a young girl from AMPO to work as an apprentice in her small workshop, thus completing the circle. Roland has recently passed his entrance test and will start working as a male nurse in the state health service, just like Daouda before him. For three years now Daouda has been second in command of a remote state clinic far in the north past Gorom-Gorom. To travel to us it takes him two days by camel and pirogue and then by bush taxi along country tracks. In a clinic like that there is no x-ray equipment, no laboratory tests, you just have to make do with what you’ve got and cope with appendix operations or childbirth by the light of oil lamps as best you can. Such people go on to become the best “attachés de santé” and one day Daouda is sure to become head of our clinic.

Our greatest causes for concern are two boys, both now living outside. First there is Aziz whom I picked up off the street aged seven. Sadly he had taken too many drugs and bore signs of damage. He simply did not make it at school. It took years of effort, but he just did not learn to read and write. On top of this he suffers from asthma and cannot easily become a joiner. What can we do?

Alain as well, who has been outside for four years now, sinks deeper and deeper into depression. He becomes aggressive to everyone around him, except me; nevertheless he has to be able to stand on his own two feet on the outside. What can be done? These are cases we often discuss at the directors’ meeting. We do come up with short-term solutions, but it is difficult in the long term.

Adama, who is completely paralysed and whom I discovered years ago in hospital is another difficult case. He lies patiently and undemanding in our rehab centre. He never has visits from the rest of his family so we have taken him in as a permanent guest. We have no choice. The poor boy is a sad case. Yet he is living together with the rest of us and his smile is a pure ray of sunshine.

You might have heard that the book “Mama Tenga” I wrote several years ago is out of print. I have just written another chapter and a new edition will appear in May with another publisher. So far this is the only book available describing Burkina Faso. Apart from Steinmeyer and Schlingensief there is little information available about how people here really live. And so I am happy that I can contribute something to general knowledge, because Burkina Faso is certainly worth it. We are poor, it is true, but we do appreciate consideration, respect and politeness. Modest people here often serve as examples of human values, many of which have long been forgotten in fast-moving Europe.

The snow you had this year befell us here in Ouagadougou in September as the flood of the century. There are still hundreds of people without a roof over their heads. Thank God with the temperatures we have you can sleep outside. Our AMPO orphanages were scarcely affected and AMPO received first-aid supplies. At the moment we are building the 58th house for families affected by the floods, with priority given to widows and the handicapped.

I am very happy with my new colleague Nicole Grimminger, who will also write a few words. She is smart, cheerful and hard-working – what more could I wish for?
I will be travelling in Germany for the entire month of May. Perhaps we will meet up somewhere. That would be great. You can find out my itinerary from the office and it also appears on our website.

For now I wish you a pleasant spring and I hope the summer makes up for such a hard winter as the one you’ve had.
God’s blessing, health and much joy from all 320 kids in Ouagadougou,

Yours,
Katrin Rohde

***

Dear friends of AMPO,

I was actually under the impression I knew a bit about Burkina Faso …after all, I had been here three times. I had conducted research for the university on business administration and tried to extend my knowledge of the local languages. From an AMPO perspective everything now seems totally different. Here we are not dealing with numbers, but exclusively with people, especially those less fortunate than myself. I deal daily with children without parents, women in need and with those who have no hope, but this is something I often forget because they are almost always smiling. Their joie de vivre and their friendliness is contagious, no matter how modest their circumstances.

I learn something new every day about how to organise my life here in the capital of Burkina Faso. I receive help from AMPO colleagues among others and Katrin also gives me tips now and again, sometimes with reticence because she thinks she is being patronising – I don’t!

The frequent power cuts in Ouagadougou are extremely annoying. Whenever the computer gives up the ghost without warning, I just turn to other tasks that can be done without electricity. This is not the only major difference between this and the jobs I previously held in Germany. The climate in my lovely, redesigned office on the site of the boys’ orphanage is completely different from other offices in the government ministries, for example, where the air-conditioning is set so that you run the risk of having a severe cold when you leave the building. At AMPO there is no air-conditioning, only fans – when the electricity is running. And then I can choose between papers flying around the room and airless heat – 44° at the moment. If my fan is switched off and African colleagues come into my office, they politely switch it on because they think I’ve forgotten to – strange!
I am very pleased to be with AMPO and to contribute my work to this institution that has grown considerably in Ouagadougou. And in a way I am contributing to providing many people in Burkina Faso with a better future and who knows what this will mean for themselves and for the world?

When I met Katrin I liked her straight away and I was immediately impressed by the AMPO facilities. Since my private life also brought me to Burkina Faso I really struck lucky. I am now working as part of a great team with about 80 Burkinan colleagues who are committed heart and soul to their AMPO children.

One of my jobs at AMPO is to support the sponsorships between the AMPO children and their sponsors abroad. And this brings me to my first piece of news for you:
15 children living in AMPO orphanages since 2009, girls and boys between the ages of 8 and 12, are still without sponsors. Every child wishes for a sponsor, either an individual or even a whole family. If you are interested in taking on a sponsorship please contact our office in Plön. The AMPO children are eager to get to know you – and so am I.

Yours,
Nicole Grimminger
Assistant to Katrin Rohde

***

… and in closing one more point from the office in Plön. As you can see, we have updated and revamped our flyer and we hope you like it. It is now also available in English and French, plus we have a new information kit with further details of all the AMPO facilities. We will send you the flyers and kits on request for you to pass on to anyone who is interested.

Best regards from Plön,
Sabine Duwe & Ricarda Dittrich
SAHEL e.V. Katrin Rohde-Stiftung

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
Internationale Bankverbindung: IBAN (Konto-Nr.):
DE27 2105 0170 0000 005785 BIC (Bankidentifikation): NOLADE21KIE

Katrin Rohde – Stiftung
Am Strohberg 2 • 24306 Plön • Tel. 0 45 22 – 50 82 34 • Fax: 0 45 22 – 50 837
Email: info@katrin-rohde-stiftung.de Internet: www.katrin-rohde-stiftung.de
Spendenkonto bei der Förde Sparkasse Plön:
• Kto. Nr. 100 203 595 BLZ 210 501 70, IBAN (Konto-Nr.): DE21 2105 0170 0100 20395 BIC: NOLADE21KIE