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During the week the girls from the orphanage are busy with school and training activities like sewing and hairdressing. At weekends they are free to do what they like best. Especially the AMPO girls are very particular about their appearance, their hairstyles, a dazzling smile, and of course a generous nature. Our girls are the best at braiding hair and it can take up to an hour. Sometimes they queue to have their hair done by those with the best braiding techniques.

In October 2020 Katrin Rohde had yet another important meeting at the Hamburg City Hall. The Deputy Mayor of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Katharina Fegebank (Green Party), received Katrin Rohde to discuss the situation in Burkina Faso and at AMPO in particular.
The country is struggling with many problems including terrorist activities, poverty and Corona. Food supplies are short and the UN is warning against catastrophic famine in the Sahel region. Many people, especially women, can no longer work independently. Street markets have been partially closed and it is now almost impossible to sell home-grown produce.

This new situation has had a major impact on AMPO where every day hundreds of women with their infants queue outside the gates asking for food, medicine or clothing.
We are so glad that Katharina Fegebank realises the urgency of the situation and has become patron of the AMPO project to finance microcredits. The project offers groups of women start-up capital for them to work independently in various areas and thus provide for their families. A microcredit for one woman costs around €40 per year. Should one of the women drop out, the other women in the group step in. Empowerment, solidarity and increased self-esteem is what microcredits can do.

Photo: Senate Press Office of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

Lucia from the Rudolf Steiner school in Mannheim came up with a brilliant idea:

In a small grocery store “Speisekammer“ (larder) she sold her homemade oilcloth. The shop supported her initiative, displaying AMPO International brochures. They collected a tidy sum just in time for Christmas.

Katrin Rohde is planning to visit the school this year to give first-hand information about AMPO. We can only hope that Corona does not put paid to that. If things work out, a visit to the larder is guaranteed.

Thanks, Lucia for your great initiative!

All’s well that ends well

Bibata is a young girl who is the victim of forced marriage. She ran away from a family court to stay with her friend. Some time later she returned to her family hoping that they had given up on the idea of marrying her off against her will. Sadly that was not the case. She refused to marry once again and was then banished by her father. She found refuge with the social services in Koubri. The social-work department asked AMPO to take her in to MIA/ALMA while they were making further attempts to reconcile her with her family. A few months after she arrived at MIA/ALMA she discovered she was pregnant. The social services were informed and contact was made to the alleged father. Two weeks after the baby was born the father came to MIA/ALMA and (fortunately) accepted paternity of his son.  

The current situation has been exacerbated by the security crisis with hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring in to the capital, the scarcity of food between mid-July and late September, not to mention the increase in food prices. Our plan is to provide food for families who are victims of this crisis.