speaking out

children from Burkina Faso


Young people from Burkina Faso reveal their hopes and dreams for the future.

"I want to stop people killing wild animals and birds, and destroying their habitat by cutting down trees. I like all the animals in the bush, but birds are my favourite, especially the brightly coloured ones like rollers and hornbills - they’re noisy and we can hear them when they’re nearby. Animals are beings. They breathe air like us. We should keep them." Youssouf, age 11, Siguin Voussé village, Burkina Faso

"When I’m older I want to work in a bank. I want to keep playing djembé, just as I do now, no different. I haven’t thought of earning money by playing. When the New Year comes we’ll be on holiday from school, and I’ll be here playing the djembé. I hope we’ll have some friends here from Europe, and we’ll play together." Rodrigues, age 10/11, Village Artistiques des Enfants du Theatre, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso


"I think life is simpler in Europe. It’s more complicated here. There children are more free. They can go to stay with friends for a week, even two weeks. A girl of 17 or 18, like me, can even go to stay with her boyfriend. Here that wouldn’t be allowed. I think the best time to get married would be when I’m about 20. My wish is for a good man to marry, to look after my children. And I want to be in a position to care for my parents." Bintou, age 17, Village Artistiques des Enfants du Theatre, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

"I have never travelled outside Burkina Faso. When I was younger, I thought Europe was a paradise where you could click your fingers and have anything. Now I know life is not so easy in Europe, and in a lot of ways not so different from our life here. People can be unhappy or lonely anywhere. One day I would like to visit Europe, to see how people live." Assita, age 24, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

"For the country, I wish for peace. There’s been no fighting in Burkina Faso, but we can hear on the radio and TV about wars elsewhere in Africa, even among our neighbours." Gaston, age 16, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

"I’d like to be a teacher, if I can go on to secondary school. My parents have said they might be able to send me. We need more schools and more teachers, so we don’t have to walk so far to school. I could teach even more pupils to become teachers in the future. And I’d like to learn how to use a camera." Zenabu, age 10, Nida village, Burkina Faso


"A lot of tourists stay here. They come from France, Germany, Ghana and England too. A lot of them can't speak French. They seem to like it here because they can do what they want, go to the villages and see the decorations on the houses, and the calabashes and the pottery. They go to see the animals, the elephants. They don't have elephants in Europe because it's too cold. Life is different in Europe. In France they ride bicycles much further than us. They don't till the land with hoes like we do. I want to become a teacher, to be like my teachers at school. They're friendly, but if you don't know your lessons they beat you. When I'm a teacher, I won't beat the children." Aziz, 13, Pô, Burkina Faso

Photos for Oxfam GB by Crispin Hughes

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