Burkina Faso is facing a humanitarian crisis. Help us today.

Dear Friend,

Ouedradgo Mariata, pictured here, is an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) residing in an informal IDP camp on the outskirts of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Before Pull for Progress arrived, there was little to no assistance from any outside source. The camp’s villagers were doing the best they could with what they had. Ouedradgo fled from Soum, where she was working as a healthcare worker in charge of malnourished children for five years. In 2019, her life turned upside down and she and her four children escaped with little on their backs. When we met her in 2021, she had no job, no income, and felt dissatisfied with the camp's state. She explained there was no system to find jobs, no way to get the kids to school or to afford it. With Pull for Progress, she became a facilitator with the Community Health Clubs and also learned from the Stop the Bleed program to be able to share this vital information with others. She has used her voice to become a community leader and has been able to advocate for their unique needs. Ouedradgo is key to Pull for Progress’ accomplishments in this IDP village.

Successes like these are the reason I’m writing today: to ask for your help to raise $30,000 to connect the people in Burkina Faso with necessary resources to achieve the basic needs everyone should have access to. Your generosity will go fully towards community-driven programming.

Burkina Faso is facing a humanitarian crisis. Since 2016, due to terrorism, political instability and corruption, 1.6 million people have been forced from their homes without anywhere else to go besides camps. When people are refugees in their own country, they are called “internally displaced persons” (IDPs). Burkina Faso has one of the highest proportions of displacement in Africa. Many of their villages have been burnt down - making it impossible for them to return to and destroying any social safety nets they had. When they fled, they left their households with empty hands as they did not have time to bring anything with them. They have no way to earn an income and they have little access to food or clean water. Threats to women and children include sexual exploitation and trafficking. An education and a job is a far-reaching dream.

This is where your support comes in.

Pull for Progress has been creating sustainable solutions to help Burkinabae escape from poverty, but right now we have a humanitarian crisis and the urgent need is to keep people alive with food, water, and medical help. We have the ability and connections to get resources directly to those who need it the most – we just need your financial support. We hope to build another clinic, but right now, the situation is proving impossible with terrorists are controlling the area. Long-term solutions are the goal, but the bleeding still needs a band-aid.

One of our team members in Burkina Faso said, “When there’s so much corruption and the needs are so high, you feel like giving up. But then I think about all the people suffering - the children, and we just can’t stop.”

Our goal is to raise $30,000 by December 31st so we can send support directly to our team, all from Burkina Faso, who are on the ground in Burkina Faso. You can give towards the goal of $30,000 here today.

Together, we can help our friends in Burkina Faso, so instead of wondering who to feed that night or feeling helpless while holding their sick child - they can experience relief and start to enjoy life again - working, cooking, and laughing with their friends and families.

Thank you,

Samy Bendjemil, MD, MPH
Moumini Niaone, MD, MPH
Rina Gandhi, Esq.
Co-founders, Pull for Progress