Burkina Faso Appeal
Trauma Care in Burkina Faso
£24.95 will fund sessions with a counsellor for one child for a month
£23,675 🎉
Target: £23,567
This project was completed in October 2023
Thank you to ...
David who donated
£2000Frank who donated
£100Michael who donated
£30We made it!
This appeal was fully funded and received £23,675! This is even more than the targeted £23,567! Thank you to everyone who donated and contributed their efforts to support this cause.
urgent support is required
Since 2015, terrorist attacks and civil unrest in Burkina Faso has displaced nearly 2 million people from their homes – more than half of them children. The government report that up to 40% of the country is currently under the control of extremist organisations. IN Burkina Faso is doing its best to welcome these families and to help them settle into the relative safety of Bobo-Dioulasso, but the atrocities that have been witnessed cannot be unseen or unheard.
Children have seen their homes, schools and crops burnt down. They may have experienced extreme violence firsthand, or be unsure how to express the grief of having family members killed or injured in the conflict.
With your support and at the request of the local Mayor, IN Burkina Faso has been able to welcome an additional 252 children through the construction of four new classrooms at La Bonne Nouvelle school. But with so many of these young people showing signs of trauma, the IN team need extra help to ensure that these mental and emotional health needs can be met with professional, culturally- and age-sensitive care.
Can you help provide trauma care to these young survivors of conflict?
project overview
Our impact
Trauma care for Refugee Children
With your support and at the request of the local Mayor, IN Burkina Faso has been able to welcome an additional 200+ internally-displaced children through the construction of four new classrooms at La Bonne Nouvelle school. But with so many of these young people showing signs of trauma because of their exposure to armed conflict, the IN team need extra help to ensure that these mental and emotional health needs can be met with professional, culturally- and age-sensitive care.
The appeal launched in February has provided compassionate and age-appropriate trauma counselling for the most severely-affected students. The child-friendly counselling sessions are a mixture of group work – exploring subjects such as fear, stress and trauma – and individual consultations with the counsellor who listens to each child’s story and begins to equip them with relevant coping mechanisms.
We now need to increase the support we provide through targeted therapeutic activities. These have been carefully designed to develop useful life skills and also connect students positively with their rural roots. This includes after-school clubs focusing on gardening and carpentry; activities they will be familiar with from their home villages, providing a sense of continuity and stability.
£23,567
These are the funds we need to to provide trauma care
February
This is when the counselling was able to begin
260
This is the number of traumatised children we can support
the difference international needs uk can make
We can provide trauma care for children fleeing from terror.
Help 260 displaced children from conflict-hit areas receive trauma care
Provide trauma care for displaced children
stories
Bassirou and Abdul were making good progress in Grade 2 in school in a rural area of Titao Province in Burkina Faso when their village was attacked.
Armed groups burned their father’s productive farming land and the small hut they lived in together. They lost almost all their possessions.
The children’s parents were undressed as the militants drove them out of the village forcibly. The family walked nearly 200 kilometres (120 miles) together on foot to find a place of safety and refuge.
Fortunately, the children’s father was in touch with his brother in Bobo-Dioulasso who offered the family his home to live in. Bassirou and Abdul’s uncle enrolled them in La Bonne Nouvelle School where they are now able to continue their studies, supported by the caring International Needs team.
But they cannot un-see, un-hear or un-feel all that they witnessed firsthand during that assault on their village, on their family home – their safe place. Like hundreds of other refugee children, they need skilled counselling to help them come to terms with what has happened, and to help manage their mental health as they deal with flashbacks, terrifying memories and the resultant post-traumatic stress disorder.
How we spend your money
For every £1 you donate to this appeal, we will allocate 25p of your donation to cover general support and running costs. There is a small chance that we will raise more money than is needed for this appeal. If this happens, we'll spend any additional funds on other International Needs projects – wherever the need is greatest.
donateproject updates
May 19th, 2023
Counselling and therapeutic after-school clubs needed to help child survivors of terrorism
An appeal launched earlier this year has provided compassionate and age-approproate trauma counselling – both psychological and, where appropriate, spiritual – for the most severely-affected students in Bobo-Dioulasso. The child-friendly counselling sessions are a mixture of group work – exploring subjects such as fear, stress and trauma – along with individual consultations with the counsellor who listens to each child’s story and begins to equip them with relevant coping mechanisms.
We now need to increase the support we provide through targeted therapeutic activities. These have been carefully designed to develop useful life skills and also connect students positively with their rural roots. This includes after-school clubs focusing on gardening and carpentry; activities they will be familiar with from their home villages, providing a sense of continuity and stability.
Please can you help?
£24.95 pays for vital trauma counselling and spiritual care for one child
£129 can buy a bench and desk set to help furnish the counselling room
£266 would cover the salary of the gardening trainer for three months
£399 ensures that the carpentry trainer’s costs are covered for three months
£2,096 provides for training materials for 50 children for a whole year
£3,000 would be sufficient for all the equipment required for carpentry training
February 01st 2023
