A few weeks ago, Girl Now Woman Later celebrated the 10th anniversary of International Day of the Girl. Here at GNWL, we believe that all girls should be provided with the resources to empower themselves. Particularly in Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world and where we mainly work, girls should be given the right to freely pursue their education and build the skills to become self-reliant.
In continued celebration of International Day of the Girl (and since every day should be International Day of the Girl), GNWL would like to highlight 3 other associations outside of ourselves whose work supports the rights of girls and women in Burkina Faso. Their projects and approaches have had tremendous positive impacts throughout areas in Burkina Faso, and are all working towards the same goals as ours: to direct girls towards a better future.
Lighting the Path. The School for Girls Project.
Lighting the Path teaches business and entrepreneurship skills to Burkinabé girls and women in poverty. Their School for Girls Project promotes education for girls who have suffered from abuse, abandonment, or forced marriages. By providing them with school buildings, classes, and supplies, the project has taught young girls “how to make a product and start a small business to earn an income [that] empowers them to take charge of their own lives and make their own decisions.”
More on the School for Girls Project here: https://www.lightingthepath.org/services/school-for-girls-project/
Follow Lighting the Path: Instagram · Facebook · Twitter · LinkedIn
The Barka Foundation. Menstrual Cup Project.
The BARKA Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable organization that focuses its work solely in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Their approaches are known to be “community-led by the people it strives to empower”. The Menstrual Cup Project promotes menstruation education to women in poverty by providing sustainable menstrual hygienic products, ie: the menstrual cup. BARKA also works in partnership with national and local stakeholders, faith-based and governmental, on this project. In the long term, BARKA will build health clinics and train community health workers to continue and oversee their cup programming. As a result, women in Burkina Faso will be able to freely pursue their education and achieve economic security.
More on the Menstrual Cup Project here: https://barkafoundation.org/project-portfolio/menstrual-cups/
Follow the BARKA Foundation: Instagram · Facebook · Twitter · LinkedIn
Association Féminine Song-Manégré pour le Développement (AFD), Club d’écoute et de Dialogue (“Listening and Dialogue Club”)
AFD is a Burkinabé association of at least 600 members and is mainly made up of women. Founded by Madame Gyebre/Ouedrogo Claire in 2000, the AFD is comprised of women leaders who aim to promote, protect, and empower women in rural areas of Burkina Faso. In each village they work, they set up a Listening and Dialogue Club where they train and provide the group with resources on human rights, family planning, micro-credits, and gender equality. The group then promotes these topics to the rest of the village to create a permanent and consistent dialogue around women’s empowerment. On every International Women’s Day, the AFD invites 2 women from each village they work with to give feedback on their framework and improve on it in their respective villages.
More on AFD’s approach here: https://afdsongmanegre.com/approche.php#
[Although we were not able to include AFD’s social media handles, you can learn more about the organization through the link above.]
Kimberly, Andy
