66 Children in need of support
Funds Required: $6600
Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world. A landlocked country in Western Africa, the average Burkinabe earns $440 per year (US Dept of State). While most families grow enough food to survive, severe drought, poor soil, and lack of infrastructure has forced many to migrate to neighboring countries for work. Separated from their families, hundreds of thousands of Burkinabe worked in factories in Côte d’Ivoire until a coup and political unrest forced the unemployed and hungry Burkinabe to come back home.
Facial, an eleven year old boy in Burkina Faso, knows what a hungry belly feels like. He doesn’t need to be told the story of his country or the economic condition because he lives on the streets, he is an orphan. He spends his days begging for food on busy streets and his nights searching for a safe place to lie down. God’s heart breaks for kids like Facial and the thousands of kids like him in Burkina Faso.
God does not turn a blind eye to Facial, but promises that he has a future. God says “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).
Facial’s past was a hungry belly, but today he is full. God has not abandoned Facial; He has used CFE to bring hope and an education. Proudly attending school, Facial boasts that he loves to read! He is curious and happy. He has a church whose members hug him and give him the attention he needs. He is still an orphan, but God has given him a new identity: He is a child of God. He has hope and a future as a kid able to laugh and play and learn. But more than that, because of his education, he will be able to pursue a career as a doctor, a teacher, a minister what ever he chooses. Even though all odds were against Facial, a poverty-ravaged country, orphaned, abandoned and hungry, God was on his side.
Partners:
Sheltering Wings Orphanage in Yako, Burkina Faso
Pastor Etienne Salou, Yako Assembly of God
Serge Kabre, CFE Coordinator based in Ougoudougou
Quick facts about Burkina Faso:
Population: 15,746,232
Literacy rate: 29.4% males and 15.2% Females
Enrollment in Primary School: 52% male, 42% Female
Enrollment in Secondary School (6 – 9th grade): 14% males, 10% Female
*Statistics from Unicef