News

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!

 

AMPO receives donations

Towards the end of summer 2020 the Volkssolidarität and Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft Berolina eG associations launched an appeal once more in support of AMPO. They bought new pencil cases, volleyballs, baseball caps and a volleyball net as part of a team effort and then started packing. The two associations also added a very welcome financial donation on top. Thank you!

The container arrived at AMPO in Ouagadougou in time for Christmas and the children set about unpacking.

Monthly diary

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.  

Siamese twins in the AMPO Rehab Unit

They are 3 months old and require nursing care until they are 6 months old when the doctors will decide if an operation is possible. Until then they will remain at AMPO. Their mother who suffers from mental illness unfortunately cannot look after them.

Monthly diary

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.

Monthly diary

In April we received a letter with a cry for help from Michel Ziba

”My name is Michel, I’m married and have 4 children. I used to work as a bricklayer. One day I was working on the support structure of a two-storey building when one of the beams came into contact with a power cable. I got an electric shock and lost both arms. I spent 6 months in hospital, 2 of them in a coma. I’ve been living with this disability now for 5 years. I was abandoned by friends and acquaintances, but thank God I’m still alive.

10 years AMPO Danmark

It is a beautiful summer’s day in the lovely garden of a small villa on the outskirts of Aarhus in Denmark. There is a marquee to provide shade, cakes and refreshments are on offer and lots of happy faces are here to welcome me. AMPO Danmark is ten years old today.

This month's diary from AMPO

Two years after the birth of her first son, Fatoumata gave birth to twins three weeks ago. Fatoumata’s husband lost his job on account of the Covid-19 pandemic and she herself is a housewife, which in this country means the same as unemployed. The couple was confronted by difficulties on two counts, Fatouma sufferered from untreated anaemia after the birth of the twins and, because her husband had lost his job, they were unable to afford care and treatment.  

Thank you, Denmark!

Our partners in Denmark, AMPO-Danmark have come up with a great fundraiser:

A group of women are knitting kitchen cloths of organic wool and selling them to raise money for the Panga la Wende wheelchair project. They

This month’s diary from AMPO

This month we’d like to tell you how the girls in the orphanage have been spending their time during quarantine.
It has been a difficult time for many people and for the children in particular. To meet the challenge the team of educators at the orphanage for girls has come up with a special CORONA programme.

AMPO Newsletter Spring 2020

Dear friends of our orphan children,

That has been more or less the opening of my quarterly newsletter to you, our friends, donors and sponsors for the past decades. And it’s going to stay that way.

You have been faithful to us and I will be faithful to you. Since I can no longer be in Burkina Faso as often as I was in the past, I’ll let the Directors responsible for the facilities address you themselves. All of them are doing a wonderful job with the women and children. I trust you and your loved ones are doing well and hope you can derive some benefit from these changing times.