P.P. Filles – Counselling centre for women

P.P. Filles – Counselling centre for women

There are no men allowed into this facility. Here women and girls are counselled on issues relating to family planning, sex education, circumcision and Aids. We also show educational films and give presentations to increase awareness in the centre and in various suburbs and schools in Ouagadougou. We often meet socially deprived women who can be helped by individual or group counselling. In many cases the women are HIV-positive and have been cast out or rejected.

Hedwige Ouedraogo, the director, together with a psychologist and a social worker take care of the women’s problems and visit families. Some of the girls who later came to MIA or ALMA were first contacted by this team. In 2008 the team conducted 2.500 individual counselling sessions, 245 group discussions and 400 visits to homes and workplaces.

The project was opened on 03.03.99 and has moved premises twice since then. This only served to make the project better known. It is now located near the two orphanages and the AMPO-MIA and AMPO-ALMA facilities, in the former soap works which has now downscaled and moved to the site of the AMPO boys’ home. The area is nicely laid out with two small offices and toilets, the remaining space is occupied by a large hangar. Here presentations and individual counselling activities take place, using a screen and a modern projector. The projector can also run an a generator so it cam be used for presentations in locations on the outskirts. This equipment dates from the time when P.P. Filles was still in running the Cinemobil activities, when visits were made by social workers to villages all over Burkina Faso offering sex education. The project came to a successful conclusion insofar as in a positive sense many other aid agencies emulated the good work. Today the Cinemobil van is used for the mobile wheelchair workshop by Edouard Norgho. Men are allowed to attend outside film presentations. In 2008, 3,295 viewers including 1,393 men attended the 25 presentations in Ouagadougou and took part in the subsequent discussions.

P.P. Filles working group

Since 2008 women at P.P. Filles have joined together in working groups, supporting women with micro credits. There are 15 women in need, organised in two groups where they collectively generate the money which is paid back later. Some of their earnings come from activities such as selling food and clothing or hairdressing. At P.P. Filles there are micro credit courses on credit management for all recipients, which leads to a gratifying rate of repayment of 98%. The micro credits are financed by Gerolf Wolpmann and Dr Gitta Zimmermann.

In addition P.P. Filles provided 325 people in 2008 with social assistance in the form of one-off payments. In every case the staff carefully assessed the necessity of such a payment. P.P. Filles works in close cooperation with the gynaecological unit and with AMPO-MIA and AMPO-ALMA.

The P.P. Filles team numbers five people in all, including an office assistant and a caretaker. The budget for the project is met from the general donation fund of Sahel e.V.