Orphans of Living Parents
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
Account of a Massacre
“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.
France 0 – Russia 1 (Wagner Arrives in Burkina)
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.
Back to Square One (10th Coup d’État in Burkina)
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.
A Morning at the Police Station…
I truly wonder how anyone can muster the motivation to work in an environment like the one in which I’ve spent pretty much all morning. Specifically, I’ve been in the “office” of the police station’s search brigade, where I had to file a complaint denouncing the theft of 77 of the protective fences around the 1,000 trees that FAR has planted this year.
Waiting List
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.