News
Monthly diary
The new AMPO year always starts in August after a summer break. Many new activities started in September and the new orphans moved into AMPO.
Monthly diary
A lot has happened this past month in terms of personal stories, summer events and support activities and … the AMPO kids have also produced their own song!
Monthly diary
Fatimata was full of hope when she and Ibrahim got to know each other one day. At the age of 23 she was rejected by her family and had been living on her own since then. This is not unusual among many women in Burkina Faso, and they all have one thing in common – they are HIV-positive. Despite her fears that Ibrahim would also reject her because of her condition, she decided to tell him. He was HIV-negative, she HIV-positive. Nevertheless they still wanted to have a family. Soon the couple were expecting their first child, but Fatimata as before was very afraid. Neither she nor Ibrahim had any earnings. How were they to afford food, clothing and a roof over their heads?
Monthly diary
More micro-credits have been given to women. Every month, P.P.Filles staff visit the women at their workplaces and are available to answer questions and give advice to them.
Monthly diary
In the middle of March Katrin Rohde visited the Paspanga solidarity centre. The centre houses 70 elderly women accused of witchcraft without reason – one of the surest ways of getting rid of women in Burkina Faso. They are alone, with no medical assistance.
Monthly diary
On 27th February the AMPO Clinic in cooperation with Lafia Care, an association of young Burkina doctors, launched an awareness campaign concerning Hepatitis B. This is an infectious disease of the liver, occurring in nearly one third of the world’s population and for which however there is a
No presents please!
Heike Kimm from Bad Emstal in Germany celebrated her 50th birthday on 20th February 2020.
It was a great party with lots of lovely people.
At that time nobody had even heard of corona ....
The invitation read: “No presents please, I have everything I want, so I’d rather you donate to AMPO in Ouagadougou.” She raised €2,000 in donations for wheelchairs.
This was the third birthday that Heike raised lots of money for AMPO.
There’s more to come. My name is Christine Labudda and I’ve been selling waffles, cakes, coffee, punch and mulled wine in my lovely flower shop for the past 15 years. But it is Heike who pays for all the ingredients. Every year we raise between €600 and €800.
Thank you, Heike.
Monthly diary
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.
Monthly diary
The 19th of December was a special day: Kadiguétou Kabore, one of our former girls married Albert Ouédraogo. Kadiguétou completed her training at the state school for Water Affairs and Forestry in 2018.
Katharina Fegebank the new patron for AMPO microcredits
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
Read more … Katharina Fegebank the new patron for AMPO microcredits
Busy hands knit for refugees
To all our wool lovers and busy knitters:
Once again we were delighted to receive another container in Ouagadougou, a third of which was full of beautifully knitted baby blankets, hats, jackets and underwear in lovely colours.
You can imagine how long it took us to sort everything out:
Most of the contents went to the victims of terrorism – more than one million. They were forced to flee their villages, many of them live in camps, having lost the land they once farmed and have no food. The nights are now cold and all of them are suffering.
Your blankets are a blessing!
Some of the products are given to other orphanages, particularly state-run institutions who have no money and no blankets. And then we also provide the other hospitals with blankets and hats to hand out. You can see from the photos how welcome these gifts are. The video shows distribution in the refugee camps.
Please keep on knitting. All of us here are so grateful.
Yours, Katrin Rohde in Ouagadougou
Lovely fundraiser from Lucia
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!
