Ten years of the Good Shepherd Mission in Burkina Faso

The Community of Bobo Dioulasso, founded in 2011 by three nuns, now has nine members of four different nationalities: Burkinabe, Malian, Filipino and Indian, plus two pre-novices and three pre-postulants.  The works are supported by International Foundations without any financial contribution from the State.

^{Women and girls who attend the cooking and pastry training center and receive support from the micro-credit financing scheme.}

Among the services we provide, we offer temporary shelter to women and girls in difficulty, women who have been abandoned by their husbands, pregnant girls who have been rejected by their families, and girls who have been victims of forced marriage. They are all welcome. The activities carried out in the refuge include regular meetings with the women, accompaniment, dialogue, education and training, psychologist appointments, group therapy, women’s reintegration, family visits, and external referrals to those who offer support to women and girls in difficulty.

Our other services include a children’s daycare center with a nursery, a cooking and pastry training center (with 15-17 students), and a micro-credit financing scheme for vulnerable women in our neighborhood to support them to establish income-generating activities in line with their skills and abilities.

In addition, we provide prison ministry to women detainees. These activities include different discussions each month on themes such as human rights, family rights, legal procedures, abortion and its consequences, female genital mutilation and its consequences, and sexually transmitted infections. Each discussion ends with sharing on the Word of God and group prayer. Last month, in March, we began to offer sewing workshops to the women. We also attend mass with the women in the prison every Sunday.

(from the article by West African Communities Senegal-Burkina Faso)

^{During the pandemic, the sisters have provided food to those in need through ‘Project Solidarity’}