Burkina Faso

The local government invested in cleaning supplies and hand-washing stations in an effort to keep everyone safe and healthy. And, in order to encourage students to wash their hands at home, many schools taught students how to build a simple hand-washing device called a tippy-tap.

At her school, 14-year-old Roufaïata led the demonstration.

“I saw that the tippy tap was very useful at home, and I thought that we should do the same thing at school,” Roufaïata says.

She knew exactly what to do after taking part in one of Plan International’s hygiene awareness presentations, along with 2,800 other families in her region. Even the school headmaster was impressed with what Roufaïata had learned.

“When we decided to build a tippy tap in front of our pupils, Roufaïata said she already knew how to do it,” the headmaster says. “So, I let her take my place and she succeeded without any difficulty. She also demonstrated the correct hand-washing technique to her classmates with perfect mastery.”

Today, Plan has supported the installation of 1,062 tippy taps in 244 schools, helping students like Roufaïata to stay safe and healthy while they learn.

That’s an achievement on its own — but what’s more impressive is that she’s only been in school for less than a year.

It all started when Yampiou and her father attended an awareness session about an accelerated learning center that Plan International was running nearby. The center, known as a “speed school,” offers educational programming designed specifically for children who have been out of school for more than two years. After nine months, the students are caught up, ready to enroll in a regular primary school.

At first, Yampiou’s father was skeptical.

“We didn’t want our daughter to go to this center,” he says. “We thought, how could a girl who has never been to school end up in the third grade after only nine months? But she insisted and we let her go.”

Yampiou remembers how scared she was going to school for the first time.

“When we started the classes, our teacher told us not to be afraid,” she says. “She encouraged us girls the most, telling us to work hard and get ahead of the boys.”

At the end of the program, Yampiou did get ahead of many of the boys, finishing as one of her grade’s top students and getting a nearly perfect score on her final exam. Now, she’s making plans for the future.

“I’m happy because I did really well,” Yampiou says proudly. “I did a good job; my parents are happy with me. I promise to continue school and succeed. I want to be a teacher.”