Men gather in a flooded street in Ouagadougou, Burkina FasoSeptember 9, 2009: Severe rain has affected 600,000 people in 16 countries across West Africa, according to the United Nations. Burkina Faso, just north of Ghana, has been hit the hardest.
The rainy season, which usually lasts from June through September in West Africa, has caused Burkina Faso’s worst flooding in nine decades. In just one day that country’s capital, Ouagadougou, received a quarter of the nation’s typical annual rainfall. Some 110,000 residents have had to flee their homes.
The rain is expected to continue for another few weeks.
Burkina Faso is a very poor country with high unemployment. Its economy has still not recovered from the damage inflicted by flooding in 2007. That year’s deluge killed 300 people and displaced 800,000. Some 160 people are reported dead from this year’s flooding, as of September 8th.
The waters have caused widespread losses of crops and livestock. Roads and bridges have been swept away, and power has been cut in Ouagadougou. Cases of diarrhea, cholera, and other water-borne diseases are on the rise.
SOS Children’s Villages on Ground to Help
A family stands before the debris of a home destroyed by floods in Ouagadougou, Burkina FasoWater has inundated the hallways of Ouagadougou’s main hospital, forcing the evacuation of patients, including 60 children. Some 70,000 of the 150,000 residents of the capital affected by the floods are children under age 14.
Natural disasters are especially devastating for children.
SOS Children’s Villages, a charity that provides homes to orphaned and abandoned children around the world, has two Children’s Villages in Burkina Faso, including one just outside of Ouagadougou.
That SOS Children’s Village sits in Nongr-Maason, one of the most affected districts. More than 5,000 people in the area (including 2,200 children) are suffering from the floods. SOS Children’s Village-Nongr-Maason remains safe, though the biological families of some of the children have lost their homes.
Providing Emergency Aid to Desperate Families
SOS has two Children’s Villages in Burkina Faso, including one just outside of Ouagadougou.Besides raising children, SOS also offers emergency relief to nearby families during times of great stress. SOS-Burkina Faso is now launching a relief program for flood victims in the Nongr-Maason area. SOS staff and community volunteers will distribute food, blankets, soap, and medicines.
In addition to its two Children’s Villages in Burkina Faso, SOS also runs two kindergartens, two schools, and a social center that provides counseling and support to distressed families.
It costs very little to help a child from Burkina Faso find security in an SOS Children’s Village. Sponsor an SOS child today.
