BURKINA DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP NIC 101575 ADDRESS.. 3 GORSEHILL ROAD, MONEYREAGH, NEWTOWNARDS, BT23 GXE Our Public Benefit Statoment The Advancement of Educatlon The benefit we provlde Is an educatlon In o country whcre a lar£o proportlon of tho populatlon havo no access to educatlon becauso of a serlous 5hortJcc of places wlthln tho state system duc to the poverty wlthln the country. Tho dlrert bcneflts wc provldo aro tho 1000 school places from the buildlng of schools. The excoptlonal cxam rcsults achlcved whlch are far superlor to thc statc run school& Th15 benefits dlrertly 011 the thlldren Ilvlnc In the utthment area of the school The Preventlon or Rellef of Po¥ertv Educatlon Is seen as the best way to break froe from poverty wlthln the country. We also run a feedlng programme for all chlldrcn accepted Into sthool Jnd for many of thcsc chlldren thls Is their main source of nutritlon. The charfws beneflc13rles are all the thSldren Elven a school place. The Advancement of Health We offer basic healthcare to all chlldren accepted Into the school. Th15 Indudes medicatlon when they are ill and we now have a nurse In attendance at the school wlth hls own treatment room. The feeding programme also Improves general health. Thls can be demonstrated by comparing children at the school with the other children In the area not at sthool. TRUSTÉES ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR 01 MAY 2019 TO 30- APRIL 2020 Unfortunately thing5 have continued to deteriorate in the country of Burkina Faso Y4here our focus is. Terrorism abounds on almost a weekly basis and it is now unsafe to go there with the Foreign Office advising against all travel to the country. Therefore we are unable to visit and take our usual photos for sponsors or take any building teams. It IS thefOre proving more difficult to provide the regular infomiation to our sponsors we would like. On the plus side, Gra School has been unaffected. even though hundreds of schools are being forced to c105e in the north of the country. We are so thankful to our sponsors for their coniinued loyalty and support throuBh this very difficult time. We are blessed to have excellent teachers in the nursery. primary. and secondary schools and this gives us optimism for the future. Most of the money we raise comes from thild sponsorship for Grace SCI01 in Bobo-Dioulasso, the second largest city in the country. Over the past 14 or 15 years we have built a nursery school. a primary school, and a secondary school. In the past year we have added a further 50 children to the school in the new Pl class. This brings the total number of children we are educating to approx lOC().
The school has an exceptional reputation in the area with parents sleeping in the groLJnds of the school for day5, ahead of the date when we start excepting children for the next school year. Thi5 15 in the hope that we can provide a place for their child. Every child in Burkina has to sit an exam at the end of primary level education. This exam is set by the Dept of Education and has to be passed to progress to secondary level. This year again we had a 100% pass rate. So far we have been able to get every child through this exam, which is almost unheard of. and is down to the commitment of all the teachers invofved. This was the fourth yearthat the secondary school had children old enough to sit the equivalent of GCSE'S. 65 per cent of the children passed which was considerably better than state schwls where the pass rate 15 around 35 per cent. The teachers are working extremely hard to do even better next year. Our aim 15 that through education these children will be able to break free from the poverty that they live in. This year some of our oldest kids are now at university which we are delighted about. The vast bulk of the fund5 we raise annually comes from our child sponsorship programme and around £50k 15 sent out to cover this. Each child get5 a school uniform, a school dinner every day and part or all of their fees paid. We also provi(ie basic healthcare should the child be ill. All of this 15 in line with our public benefft respon5ibilitie& We our unashamedly a Christian School although most of the chIldn come from either a Muslim or an Animistic back8round. Our financial position 15 healthy. Nobody involved receive5 any money from the charity. When we are able to travel, everyone funds the costs of their own travel to and from Burkina and the only expenses we have are postage. bank fees and other very small outgoings. We have no debt. We have funds in reserve but this will be needed as we roll out elettricity for the whole school. In all of our financial decisions this year the tmstees have tsken seriously the Eard we take for the Charity Commission's Public benefit Statutory requirements. Burkina Development Partnership is set up undera trust deed and our objects a clearly defined as "established to support by means of financial assistance any charitable project for the protection and preseNation of health, the relief of poverty or the advancement of education in Burkina Faso and its environs of West Africa." Nigel Graham Trustee of BDP