The SUJARO Direct Action Project (SDAP) is a 501c (3) incorporated nonprofit working to dramatically improve the lives of people living in a target area of Western Burkina Faso. Targeted and focused actions in the following areas will help address the principle areas for people to be able to take themselves out of the vicious cycle of extreme poverty and the accompanying, and avoidable, high degree of suffering:

1. Meeting Daily Needs: Clothing, Necessities and Food

Problem: People in this region unnecessarily perish and become sick due to a lack of adequate food, clothing and other basic necessities.
     · Almost 50% of the rural population does not have enough food to meet their minimum energy intake.
     · Nearly 44% of children suffer with stunted or delayed growth due to malnutrition.
     · Almost 40% of children under 5 suffer chronic malnutrition and 50% of child deaths are related to undernutrition.
     · Poor diets cause iodine and vitamin A deficiencies, iron deficiency anemia, and other problems that prevent or limit people from working or going to school; and inadequate clothing makes people more vulnerable to disease.

Action: SDAP continues to purchase and distribute rice, vitamins, and nutrient dense ready-to-use foods (RUF), and sends donated high quality clothing and other necessities to reduce hunger, bolster people’s nutritional intake, improve their health status, and help make it possible for them to improve the quality of their lives. This basic action establishes an immediate baseline for the effectiveness of other actions.

2. Water Development: Access and Management

Problem: Terrible droughts are commonplace in Burkina Faso, a country that generally relies on subsistence farming, and access to clean water is NOT a given. According to the Human Development Report, not having access to clean water is “a euphemism for profound deprivation.”
     · Only 50% of the people are able to access clean water, with much lower percentages in rural areas.
     · For many, the nearest source of water is often hours away, and the daily trek can mean little time is left to work or attend school. Inadequate rainfall and dirty water mean that people often go hungry and are sick.
     · 1/3rd or more of all rural water points are out of order at any one time.
     · Only 12% of the people have access to sanitation.

Action: SDAP will install industrial sized water pumps in 20 villages, serving a population of an estimated 150,000 people who currently have little or no access to clean water. This project will include education on maintaining the pumps and improving sanitation and hygiene. In addition, SDAP will explore tangential beneficial work on irrigation and improving crop yields.

3. Direct Health Care Initiatives

Problem: One of the great perils of extreme poverty is the onset of disease and avoidable death. Men, women, and children in Burkina Faso confront malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, yellow fever, cholera, meningitis, the spread of HIV/AIDS, and an inadequate health care infrastructure. Sickness and death, and the emotional, psychological, economic and cultural costs linked to disease dramatically challenge peoples’ ability to emerge from extreme poverty.
      · Life expectancy at birth is only about 50 years.
     · Only 2% of children under 5 use an insecticide-treated bednet (that has been found to prevent malaria).
     · Only 23% of women regularly see a doctor while they are pregnant.
     · There is only one physician per 10,000 people.

Action: To directly impact this terrible crisis, SDAP is developing three projects : A Health Education Project to identify, empower, educate and train individual community health care educators to address unmet health needs in their communities, including good sanitation and hygiene practices; A Disease Eradication Project to directly fight malaria (by distributing mosquito nets and anti-malarial drugs) and make available vaccinations that have proven effective to stop targeted diseases; and semi-annual stationary and roving Direct Health Outreach Clinics that will offer vaccinations, vision screening, health education and basic health care needs. The clinics will distribute such needed items as mosquito control and netting, corrective glasses, water filtration, and hygienic supplies.

4. Education Development: Helping Children Attend and Stay in School

Problem: Educating people offers significant returns for health, economic growth and eliminating poverty. For instance, children’s under-five mortality rate falls by more than 50% if their mothers have a primary school education. Yet in Burkina Faso:
     · Burkina Faso has more than 1 million out-of-school children: more than half (59%) have never been in school and may never enroll without additional incentives.
     · Barely half of the country’s girls attend school, and of those who begin school, fewer than 3 in 10 graduate.
     · Extreme poverty in a country in which 86% exist on $2 a day or less, prevents many from attending school because parents cannot afford the school fees and the costs of uniforms and supplies, and cannot lose the income their children generate as workers.

Action: To help kids enroll and remain in school, SDAP will distribute clothing, school uniforms and supplies (including pencils, paper, erasers, and books), supply a noon meal, and work to turn schools into community centers where children’s food and health care needs are addressed.

5. Microfinance

Problem: Low levels of household income are a major problem in Burkina Faso, with women especially seeking and needing sources of income to support themselves and their families.
     · A World Bank study of three programs found that 5% of clients graduated out of poverty each year, allowing people to “protect, diversify, and increase their sources of income, the essential path out of poverty.”
     · Microfinance programs help to: eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, and help combat diseases.

Action: Microfinance initiatives successfully provide individuals and families with a way to finance income-generating activities, thereby helping them escape extreme poverty. Using a model proven effective throughout communities in the developing world, SDAP will work directly with partners to introduce a microlending program to individuals and communities with proven, demonstrated results.

• To go back to the SDAP Main Page, click here

• For background information on Burkina Faso and our target population, click here

• To learn about some of the challenges and opportunities SDAP faces, click here

• To view photos of previous SDAP accomplishments, click here

• To learn about how you can participate in SDAP’s efforts and read about SDAP’s short-term goals for an upcoming trip in early 2010, click here