The latest news from Burkina Faso
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
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