Compassion Partnership - Projects
On their visit to Burkina Faso in January 2010, Hill City Pastors Dai and James asked the leaders at our partner church in Ouagadougou what the Compassion project's most pressing needs were. The 3 issues they identified were:
1. Mosquito nets for the children and their families
2. Play equipment for the centre
3. The construction of classrooms to accommodate even more children from the community
We have since been working closely with Compassion UK to meet these needs. It is the aim of everyone at Hill City Church to raise the required funds to enable each of these life-changing proposals to be implemented and a whole variety of creative fund-raising events are planned for the near future. All donations and assistance in running these events will be gratefully received.
All the projects will be sourced from the local region of Paspanga rather than exported from the UK, thus helping to boost their local economy. All projects will be overseen by Compassion UK so you can be safe in the knowledge that your money is being carefully managed and accounted for.
During their trip, Dai and James were privileged to be able to visit another, more rural compassion project, where they were troubled to hear that there was only one bible available which everyone had to share. It was agreed that Hill City Church would like to provide more bibles for this projects and so, following the Wales 3000 Challenge madness by Jim and Ben, enough money was raised to send a consignment of Bibles to this project. Thank you Jesus for the opportunity to serve these people in your name!
Distribution of Mosquito Nets
Beneficiaries: 180 children and their families.
Total Cost: £1,133.30 (This target has been reached)
Paspanga is a neighbourhood of northern Ouagadougou. The area borders a large dam with a poor draining system and Paspanga is vulnerable to flooding during heavy rains. The water stagnates and some parts of Paspanga become a swamp-like breeding ground for mosquitoes, making Paspanga one of the most malaria-affected areas of Ouagadougou.
SIM Paspanga Child Development Centre is located in Paspanga and most of the registered children and their families live in the neighbourhood. As a result the incidence of malaria among the children is very high. Malaria alone accounts for 80% of health expenses at SIM Paspanga Child Development Centre and many of the children contract malaria more than once a year.
This not only affects the children's attendance and performance at school and at the project, but also on the project activities. When the children are sick, they are unable to take part in the activities designed to aid their development and the treatment costs are a financial burden for the project.
Aims and Benefits: This Complementary Intervention aims to provide two mosquito nets for each of the 180 registered children which they can use at home as effective malaria prevention. The objective is to reduce the incidence of malaria and other vector borne diseases by 50 per cent among the 180 registered children. The Complementary Intervention should also teach the children to choose good health practices and remain physically healthy.
Purchase and Installation of Playground Equipment
Beneficiaries: The children at the Development Centre.
Total Cost: £839.00 (This target has been reached)
SIM Paspanga Child Development Centre was opened in 2009. Like most new Compassion-assisted projects in Burkina Faso, they lack the facilities to fully implement the child development programme.
Play is an important component of any child development strategy, allowing the children to enjoy themselves, while at the same time building knowledge and experience and growing in curiosity, confidence and self-control. SIM Paspanga Child Development Centre currently does not have any playground facilities, limiting the safe play options for the children.
Providing the SIM Paspanga Child Development Centre with playground equipment would allow SIM Evangelical Church of Paspanga to better address the holistic needs of the registered children. This would lead to improvements in school performance and in their interactions with their peers. In addition, playground facilities will attract children to the project centre and project attendance would increase. This in turn protects children from spending time in unsafe environments outside the centre.
Aims and Benefits: This proposal aims to provide the 180 children registered in SIM Paspanga Child Development Centre with safe playground facilities, allowing them to play, develop socil skills and remain physically healthy.
Construction of Five Classrooms
Beneficiaries: The 180 children who are currently registered, together with additional children who could be registered at the Development Centre when these facilities are in place.
Total Cost: £23,752.60 Make a contribution to this project
SIM Paspanga Child Development Centre was opened in April 2009. One of the challenges facing new church partners is the lack of facilities and infrastructure.
SIM Evangelical Church of Paspanga and the project staff have worked hard to adapt the existing chrch compound and limited facilities for the children. Local resources have been used to build a child-friendly toilet, a kitchen and an office for the project staff.
However, the resources are limited and building infrastructure requires larger funding, which the church does not have access to. One of the requirements of the Compassion curriculum is that the registered children are divided into age group classes. This highlights the need for more classrooms where classes can be held by age group on a regular basis.
Church activities sometimes overlap with those of the project and during those times, space is an issue. There are not always rooms available for the weekly Bible studies and other tutorial classes, making it difficult for the staff, volunteers and teachers to maintain discipline and teach effectively. This represents an obstacle to the long term development of the registered children. It also prevents this project from registering new children from the community as there is not enough room.
Aims and Benefits: The Complementary Intervention aims to provide SIM Paspanga Child Development Centre with five additional classrooms, enabling the staff to implement the age specific child development programmes for both the currently registered children and those who will be registered in the future. The objective is to create ample and child-friendly learning environments, increase the efficiency of the child development programme through improved implementation of the Compassion curriculum and increase the capacity of the project to register new children.
