EDUCATION
Association Evangélique Sowtaa (AES) seeks to support women in their education through training programs and housing.
Training Programs
We provide spiritual education as well as practical training in skills such as tailoring, beadmaking, hairdressing, gardening, etc. We also organize an annual camp for young women in the town of Gaoua in Burkina Faso to educate women on biblical values, entrepreneurship, environmental concerns, and health education. Through regular workshops, we gather women and invest in their leadership development, as well as teaching them what it looks like to have positive relationships with the opposite sex so that they are better informed and less vulnerable to being exploited or abused.
Housing
Many young women move from the villages to the southwestern cities of Gaoua or Batié in order to pursue secondary education. They think that they can find jobs in Ghana to help them pay for tuition, school fees, and rent. However, without family connections in the cities, these women often end up living in uncompleted buildings or on the streets and become vulnerable to exploitation and abuse despite being determined to work and pay for their own education.
AES strives to support these women in their educational pursuits by providing safe shelter. Currently, this is temporarily achieved through three rental houses in the cities of Batié, Gaoua, and Bobo-Dioulasso. AES is actively trying to build a more permanent space called the House of Hope, where women can receive training as well as accommodations while they pursue their secondary education.