APPEL, the Association of Sponsorship for Education and Freedom (Association de parrainage Pour l’Éducation et la Liberté) educates highly disadvantaged children in Dédougou, Burkina Faso. Active since 1991, the association was founded by a group of teachers from the department La Meuse in France.
The APPEL school Samuso in Dédougou was opened in 2003. It now educates some 400 kindergarten and primary school children. This school has three kindergarten classes and six primary school classes.
Since the beginning of the 2016 school year, Grade 6 class and Grade 7 class opened. There are now 90 students who attend middle school. The next school year should welcome 45 Grade 8 students.
Funding for the operation of the school complex is provided by donations from members of the APPEL association. However, all educational operation falls under the Ministry of Education of Burkina Faso. The official school programme is applied and the teachers are government officials.
APPEL provides a mid-morning snack, lunch, takes care of medical expenses and school supplies for all the students of this entire school structure. To facilitate access to new technologies, the computer room, accessible to all students, has thirty computers and one video projector. An experimental science laboratory, the only one in Dédougou, was built for the middle school students.
APPEL seeks out sponsors to fund the educational costs of new students. Sponsorship is not only a story about money, but also a story about the heart. Sponsors can write to their sponsored child and exchange personal letters with him/her. They receive the term report card of the sponsored child. Sponsors may participate financially based on their options, starting from €45 per year.
Contact APPEL: 03-29-90-72-08 – appel@ecole-appel.fr
