As we are traveling to Burkina Faso next week, we thought it might be a good time to look into the culture and history of the nation. Like other West African countries, Burkina Faso has been inhabited since approximately 14,000 BC. Nomadic tribes still travel the nation’s northern regions and traditional religious ceremony remains an important element of day-to-day life. As one of the most ethnically diverse nations in the world, Burkina’s cultural identity is as varied as it is vibrant.

Burkina Faso

A great thing about working in Burkina Faso, since we’ve been there before, is the familiarity with the landscape. Normally some of your brain is working towards getting the lay of the land, trying to figure out what the local customs are (in some places you can’t put your feet up with the bottom facing people, in other places you can’t refer to a certain period of time because it was marked by a violent revolution) so it’s always nice to be someplace where your brain power can be focused on building relationships.

This Saturday, September 8th, marks the 51st annual International Literacy Day. Established in 1966 by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the holiday was first celebrated the following year in 1967. Observed by all UN states, International Literacy Day is meant to raise awareness and highlight the importance of literacy for individuals, communities and entire nations.

Our second stop in our September trip will be in Malawi, this time working with CARE. Our workshop in Malawi will be our first time both working in Malawi and with CARE. Unlike most of the countries we travel to, Malawi’s official language is English, allowing our English-speaking staff to more directly engage the workshop’s participants.

Partnering with UNICEF (United Nations International Fund for Children), we will be returning to Burkina Faso at the end of September. As you may remember from our July newsletter, this trip was originally scheduled for mid-summer but had to be postponed. While this is our second time traveling to Burkina Faso, this will be our first time working with UNICEF. We are incredibly excited for the opportunity to work with an organization as large and influential as UNICEF and look forward to future partnerships.

Last month OMPT had the pleasure of seeing an old intern, Lily Mirsepassi. Interning for us in 2013, Lily has since graduated from Chico State with a double major in French and Business Finance and a minor in International Studies. Following her graduation in 2016, Lily volunteered for the Peace Corps.

Sneakernet (snēk-ər-net): a slang term referring to the act of physically transporting data between computers rather than sharing over a network. The name is a play on the sneakers worn by whoever transports the data in physical space and the term network. Rhymes with “ethernet.”

I’ve been doing OMPT for about 12 years now and it’s never been easy. But what gets me up in the morning is the hope that we can transform lives. That the things we are doing have positive impact. Our kits have a lifetime of maybe 5 years, so, over those years, thousands, maybe tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people will watch a message created and shared through the technology and training we provided.

Effective altruism is a method of giving that uses quantitative evidence to determine the most effective places to donate. More and more, people are choosing to donate where they believe their dollars will have the most impact, whether that be in fighting animal suffering, protecting the long-term future of life on Earth through combating climate change or by providing aid and stability to underdeveloped nations across the globe.