Fred's Burkina trip, January 2023

Fred Eckhard made a trip to Burkina in January 2023, his first visit in three years following the covid pandemic. In eight days, he met one-on-one with 29 of BWEF’s current students as well as 9 graduates - 38 in all.

“What is remarkable is how every single one of them is on track, even those in state universities who are two or even three years late for their licence diplomas. They keep plugging away.”

In this gallery, Fred brings us news from some of his meetings.

Anayiss

Anayiss went back and forth to university on a bicycle we gave her and finished her course work for an undergraduate degree in business management last year. To get her diploma she will have to do a three-month internship, then base her thesis on it, but even unpaid internships are hard to find in Burkina Faso. She finally found one in December with a communications company. She thinks it could lead to a job.

Noëlla

Noëlla is in her third year studying Infomatics and Telecommunication. She doesn’t want to go on for a Master’s; she feels confident she can find work with an undergraduate degree. She lives about 12 km from her university, but an uncle gave her a motorbike.

Judith

“I wanted to do something concrete, and from childhood I always liked to draw.” Judith is in her first year studying construction engineering.

Cherifa

With BWEF’s support Cherifa got her undergraduate degree in agronomy. The university requires that she do a six-month internship and then write and defend her thesis. She finished the internship in Koudougou last November; she’s correcting her thesis now and hopes to defend it in March 2023. She’s launched.