Burkina Faso is a French speaking land-locked country in sub-Saharian West Africa and is one of the poorest countries in the world.

It has a land area slightly larger than the UK and it has a population of 14.36m.

It is in the bottom five of Countries according to the UN Human Development index.

It is a politically stable country with good community relations but it suffers from extreme poverty and consequently has a very poor infrastructure.

There is a very high infant mortality rate with 204 infant deaths per 1000 births.
(UK has 6 per 1000).

Average Life expectancy is very low, for men 50 years and women 53 years
(UK male/female average life expectancy is 77 years for men and 81 years for women).

There are only 5 doctors per 100,000 population. In the UK we have 230 - almost 50 times as many.

AIDS is an increasing problem, in common with much of Africa, so there are a growing number of AIDS orphans and widows. This problem is made worse because of the low status of widows and the very low adult literacy rates, especially for women. Women have a literacy rate of 21.6% (UK 99%) and they find it especially difficult to become economically active. The male literacy rate is only 36.7%, so there is a pressing need to improve these rates for the whole population.

Low literacy rates and traditional customs make it very difficult to communicate Health Education effectively.

Malnutrition is a serious problem, causing stunted growth in 39% of children.

Water supply is very poor and is dependent on the rainy season from June until October. The rest of the year is dry and much of the country is reliant on wells for their water supply.

The extreme poverty is illustrated by the fact that the average Gross Domestic Product per
head of population is £220 pa. (GDP for the UK is £20,048).

This means we in the UK are almost 100 times richer than people in Burkina Faso.

(Data as of 6/2009)

You can donate through the church office