Hope in Burkina Faso
In 2012, two refugee camps opened in Northern Burkina Faso for thousands of Malian families who had fled their homes. At the time, the camps were managed by IEDA Relief and UNHCR with the government of Burkina Faso. In October 2016, our team of 12 educators, art therapists, facilitators, and videographers spent ten days in both camps, home to 30,600 refugees, and trained 20 camp educators to continue the program.
Before the mission, Houston students from 12 schools, four community centers, and 20 Harris County Public Libraries created more than 600 paintings filled with messages of hope and love for the children in the camps.
“It’s going to allow these children to imagine, to have hope… They will understand that they have value; they will understand that they have roots.”
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Life in Goudebou, Refugee Camp, Burkina Faso
17,600 Malian refugees live in Goudebou, located near Dori in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso bordering the northeastern countries of Nigeria and Mali.
Half of the refugees speak French, and the other half speak Tamasheq, the native dialect of the semi-nomadic Islamic African tribe called the Tuaregs, or “Free men.”
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Realities of War Through the Eyes of a Child
When asked to draw something they feared, most of the refugee children drew scenes of war that they lived through.
One of the first stages of the Be the Peace – Be the Hope healing process was to create a safe place for the children to express painful memories they may have repressed. This may have been the first time any of them had a chance to externalize these memories.
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Hopeful Thoughts
In the next stage of the workshop, our team and camp educators invited the children to move beyond the images of painful memories. To do so, we encouraged them to draw inspiring images of what happiness and hope means to them.
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Deep in Thought
By transitioning from drawings of painful memories to hopeful thoughts, the process gave the children space to express their emotions in a safe way, and recognize their own potential for positive outlets.
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Electrifying Intensity
It’s very difficult to find time to reflect or to find a release from traumatic experiences when food, water, and safety are your daily concerns.
Electrifying intensity occurred when the kids were able to release these painful memories through the activity of drawing. The children were transformed as they began to smile, became more engaged, and their eyes opened wider.
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Goodbye Ceremony Circle
On the last day of our camp program, we joined the children in a large circle of Hope. In the middle of the circle, our team and the camp’s teachers sung out to them the song that we created together called “You are the Hope.”
The song was written in collaboration with the teachers at a weekend training session in Ouagadougou before we visited the camps.
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This is Home for Now
Typical home tents in the refugee camp in the sprawling Sahel desert
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Love
Traditional blackboard wisdom
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Sewing Hope
Camp Youth combining their art with the artwork created and sent by Houston’s Youth.
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The Tree of Hope
Designing the Tree of Hope illustrates the roots as our values and beliefs, our past acquired references through family, school, and community, the trunk as who we are, our qualities and talents, and the branches as our goals and dreams, and what we will bring into the world.
Team credits: The Be Peace – Be Hope Team in Burkina Faso included Karine Parker-Lemoyne (Head of the mission) Alicia Campos, Curry Glassell, Eisha Khan, Fadila Kibsgaard, Nishtha Joshi, Leila Kengueleoua, Cecilia Norman, Cynthia Ouedraogo, Naiyolis Palomo, Lex Parker, and Dimitri Pilenko as well as Noel Bezette-Flores, Caroline Edmundson and Britain Venner in Houston.
