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Unfortunately, this post does not require much introduction. As you will see, it is a translation of the latest report from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which is an independent humanitarian organization that aids displaced people (people forced to flee their homes). For the first time, Burkina tops the list of the most neglected displacement crises in the world.

The maelstrom of everyday life, that frenetic rhythm, which, thanks to a cup of coffee, goes from 0 to 1,000 the second the alarm clock rings each morning, makes it difficult for me to be aware of the reality that surrounds me. I can’t pretend I don’t often think it’s better that way. Yet it is a double-edged sword. It can distort my perception of what actually happens in this environment – a perception crucial to a healthy balance between the rational and the emotional. Stopping to observe and to put in writing a day in the life of the Burkinabé woman reconnects me with the essence of this wonderful land and its women

Children orphaned by living parents – the vast majority of children benefiting from FAR projects – not only live in extreme need, but also have to deal with the deep emotional wounds of abandonment

“The pigs wanted to eat my father, so I risked my life hiding in the caves so I could bury him overnight.” This is the terrible story to which we woke up today, from a survivor of the last terrorist massacre in a small village in the community of Partiaga, Eastern region, bordering Niger and Benin.

What might appear to be a wager on the outcome of a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying match (assuming that Russia is readmitted after having been expelled from the Qatar World Cup for invading Ukraine) is actually a metaphor for Russia’s potential victory over France in the fight for first place in ‘bilateral’ cooperation with Burkina Faso and other Sahel countries.

I have always been fonder of Parcheesi than of ‘The Goose’ (the popular Spanish board game ‘La Oca’). Yet, while both games could serve as a simile for Burkina’s current situation after its 10th coup d’état this weekend, I’d relate it to the experience of landing on square 58 (the skull) in ‘La Oca’, which sends you all the way back to square one.

We are celebrating at FAR again because we have just provided bicycles to 5,000 people. Behind each of those 5,000 bikes is a person who has gone through our endless “waiting list,” which can receive more than 1,000 applicants in a single day.

I have been waiting for some time for an event that might provide me the opportunity to comment on the “auctoritas” (the real, although not legal power) of Burkinabé society’s traditional leaders. Today, one of the women beneficiaries of the FAR vegetable garden was expelled from the neighborhood for adultery, opening the door to this new post.

Following a recent case involving the sexual abuse of one of the girls in FAR’s “education for unschooled girls” project (the third… that we know of…), I discover “Out of the Shadows”, a 2020 report on child sexual abuse and exploitation by The Economist Intelligence Unit, which ranks Burkina 59th (alongside Pakistan) of the 60 countries ranked.