Les Amis is a Godalming-based charity which has been set up to serve the poor and needy of Burkina Faso.

What are the aims of Les Amis?  The aims of Les Amis are to provide help and relief for some of the poorest people in the world.  

One of the more pressing aims of Les Amis is to support women.  The lives of women in Africa can be extremely difficult, but particularly so for those who have given birth to a disabled child.  This can often lead to the woman and her disabled child being abandoned.  Women who find themselves in this situation face not only the difficulties of caring for a disabled child, but also the anguish of being abandoned to a life of poverty and destitution.  We really want these women to have somewhere to turn, and we hope that our work with them will not only provide the financial help so desperately needed, but also encourage the women to help and befriend each other.

Keeping girls in education is an important part of the work of Les Amis as there remain some customs in Burkina Faso which make the girls vulnerable to abusive and undesirable situations.  Keeping them in education is a way of protecting them from these customs.

We are also involved in protecting young women from an unwanted early marriage by funding a refuge to which they can turn.  At this refuge they are housed, fed, clothed and taught several skills such as weaving, embroidery, brewing, soap making, growing crops and animal husbandry.  They are also taught how to read and write.  With these skills they can become self-sufficient.      

But this was just the beginning! We have gone on from there to fund a myriad of other small and larger projects, reaching out to countless individuals in the process. Click here to take you to the page which says a bit more about our projects.