Burkina Faso, formerly called Upper Volta, is one of the countries where Africare's work began. Food, water and health were the focal points of the first projects, starting in 1973. More than 60 projects have followed — addressing the rural people's basic needs for increased agricultural production, better water supplies, improved natural resource management, adequate health care and, generally, the means to rise above poverty in one of the poorest countries on earth. A landmark was the eight-year, $5.9 million project in Burkina Faso's Seguenega sector: From 1978 to 1986, this project pioneered Africare's concept of "integrated rural development," in which multiple forms of assistance (social services, infrastructure and farmer training, for example) were applied to a single geographic area to improve the quality of life overall.
Current Africare assistance to Burkina Faso:
(Updated, Dec. 18, 2007)