The insecurity affecting the Sahel has created hundreds of thousands of displaced people, including many children and young people. In the 9th arrondissement of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, entire families have settled and live daily in precarious conditions, facing food, economic, health and housing problems. Attentive to the situation of internally displaced children and young people and true to its commitment to them, SSI-AO, through the RAO, urgently set up an initiative to promote the right to education, called INITIATIVE 1-2-3, in December 2019. In total, 123 of them were supported in an educational project. Three months after their return to school, SSI-AO and the MAEJT organized a follow-up mission for these children and their families.
“I was very sad to flee my village and leave my friends behind… I am very happy, I will be able to study and make new friends.” These were the words of Ali, a ninth-grade student and one of the young RAO beneficiaries met during the follow-up. Like him, the other 122 supported children and young people, along with their families, are relieved: the threat of dropping out of school is now behind them.
To get back on the path to school, these beneficiaries had to rely not only on SSI-AO’s support through the RAO, but also on the understanding and commitment of private school administrators, who agreed to enroll them nearly three months after the start of the school year, and to significantly reduce their tuition fees.
Supporting internally displaced families: support for internally displaced people in Burkina Faso is not limited to schooling children and young people. It is part of a holistic approach that also takes into account vocational training for those beyond school age, the development of a national plan to anticipate and manage village-to-city internal migration in collaboration with the government of Burkina Faso, and above all the economic empowerment of families, so that they are able to meet the basic needs of their children. The follow-up mission thus made it possible to assess these families and begin initial thinking on income-generating activities to be put in place.
