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Helping Others

In January 2015 we began a new project of befriending a small Catholic primary school in the town of Manni, in Burkina Faso, West Africa.  Founded in 1954 and very typical of primary schools in Burkina Faso, l'école St Michel (or, St Michael's Catholic Primary School) has just six classrooms for 390 children. 

During January 2015 we made an appeal for each of our children to bring £1 to school to enable us to buy a number of footballs and skipping ropes.  Mrs Nicholls visited Manni during the February 2015 half-term, taking the footballs and skipping ropes with her.  She describes her reception there in the letter below.  Photographs of her visit can be found on the 'Photo Galleries' page.  We are trying to find out if it will be possible to load the videos as well.  

Some facts about Burkina Faso:

Is a land-locked country bordering six countries: Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast.

It has a population of about 17,000,000 and a landmass of 105,000 square miles.

Life expectancy is just 55 (for men) and 57 (for women)

80% of the population relies upon subsistence farming to survive.

It is one of the poorest countries in the world with a per capita income of just $250.

Education is not free, hence many children do not attend school because their parents cannot afford it.