The bad weather conditions did not seem to alter USNO Acting Chief Executive Officer Audrey Bracey Deegan and her team’s desire to listen to the Tangassogo community members talk about education. She has come to Burkina Faso, together with Famari Barro, Program Manager for West Africa Region and Trudy Coleman, Deputy CFO to take part in the launch of BRIGHT II, a major project that the USNO helped to boost education in Burkina Faso. The delegation used the opportunity to visit one of 132 community which benefited a 3 classrooms complex from the BRIGHT project, school complexes which are to be extended to 6 classroom ones under the BRIGHT II.
They sat under a tree behind the school building. Greetings formalities over, exchanges went on between the villagers and their guests, both sides bravely standing a red dust lifted by whirling gasps of wind. About 200 community members led by the village chief faced the USNO delegation and Makasa Kabongo, Chief of Party of the BRIGHT (Burkinabè Response to Improve Girls’ Chances to Succeed ) project to talk about education, mainly girls’ in their village.
Among many other things said on that day, the villagers confessed that they feel much relieved now in their community, as their children no longer walk the long distances separating their homes from the neighboring village schools. In addition to the infrastructure building, the BRIGHT project included some social mobilization activities through which they became aware of all the benefits of education. Two mothers confessed that they used to keep their daughters at home to help for house shores and to prepare to get into early marriage. Currently in Tangassogo, no mother wants her daughter to sit back at home while other children learn to read and write. Moreover, a school children mothers’ association was set up to support girls’ education, monitoring their work, leading income generating activities such as market gardening and soap making to cater for the small needs of the school. With the money earned, they buy buckets, cups, and soap for the classrooms, and also supplied the school canteen with fresh vegetables from their garden. The initiative proved to be so helpful that they decided to find ways to monitor boys’ studies.
The men also shared similar views about girls’ education. The village development committee chairman stressed: “we see people like the USNO delegation come to our village to visit, with women among them. This is due to the fact that they are educated. In Tangassogo, we also want our daughters to be like the female visitors coming to us, telling the whole world about what they have seen in our village in foreign languages”.
The Tangassogo guests toured the classrooms, were taken by the school director to her house, one of three lodgings built by the project, and that the villagers fenced with a wall of mud bricks. “The BRIGHT schools are exceptional. I have been teaching for the past 9 years, but did not feel so much at ease as here. There is some good monitoring of our work. We are not lacking any teaching aid nor school supplies. The villagers fenced my lodgings; where I was before, it never happened to any teacher”, Kondaga Delphine, the headmaster said.
This half day was much appreciated by the villagers, who perceived it as a token of real care for their community. “In addition to helping us acquire a school, you came all the way from the USA to visit us. We will also not spare any effort to get our children educated” , one of the parents association member said.
Françoise Kaboré / Tiendrébéogo
