Internally displaced adolescents and youths embrace careers for the future in Dori
The Schools for Africa project offers out-of-school displaced children and youths chances to acquire skills in various walks of life in Burkina Faso’s northeastern Sahel region
- Français
- English
Photostory
Salamatou is from Sampelga in the Sahel region, northeastern Burkina Faso. Due to insecurity, she was forced to flee her village and seek refuge some 40 kilometers away in Dori, the Sahel region’s capital and most urbanized city. Salamatou has an enterprising spirit. When her education was interrupted by her displacement, she refused to give up.
Now 21, Salamatou joined vocational training courses organized by the Ministry of Education (MEBAPLN) and UNICEF to equip out-of-school children with quality education and skills for income-generating activities. During the four months of instruction, she acquired knowledge and skills in poultry farming.
In Burkina Faso, the Schools for Africa project is improving the lives of thousands of children. With UNICEF Japan’s generous funding by, the project offers an integrated response for inclusive and equitable access to quality protection and education for children from displaced families as well as those from host communities. The project has benefited Salamatou, who is now able to launch her own business with her classmates.
The Schools for Africa project aims to ensure that 283,800 children and adolescents including 159,600 girls, affected by complex emergencies and displacement, will have access to formal and non-formal education opportunities, psychosocial support, and vocational training. The project also seeks to rapidly build learning skills among at-risk communities in 10 of Burkina Faso's 13 regions (Sahel, Centre-North, East, North, Boucle du Mouhoun, Centre-West, Central Plateau, Centre-South, Centre, and Hauts Bassins). As students completed the programme, Boubacar Elhadji, Sahel Education Regional Director handed out installation kits to displaced children and young people in Dori.
From February to July 2025, UNICEF supported the enrollment of 12,232 children in the formal education system, including 6,076 girls. In Dori and Gorom-Gorom in the Sahel region, 500 adolescents and young people, including 199 girls, from internally displaced families, received training in poultry farming, carpentry, mechanics, electrification and solar energy, cell phone repairing, hairdressing and sewing.
Aissatou, 17, was forced to stop going to school when she forcibly left her village of Todja. Once in Dori, about 50 kilometers from her village, she was registered among the children eligible for vocational training. She chose sewing.
19-year-old Mathias chose a slightly more complex path. The young internally displaced from Solhan snatched the opportunity offered by the Ministry of Education and UNICEF to train in construction electricity, thanks to funding from UNICEF Japan. He was already showing real potential in his practical work.
To implement vocational training for displaced children and those from vulnerable host families, the Ministry and UNICEF held coordination meetings with partners to define a list of trades and criteria to identify children and master craftsmen. Afterwards, they raised awareness among parents in the communities and identified apprentices and trainers.
The pre-vocational training has promoted socio-professional integration of hundreds of young internally displaced and host people, fostered their sense of entrepreneurship, while creating a safe and nurturing learning environment for them.
Among the adolescents and young girls and boys trained in various trades, 500 received installation kits and attended courses in financial management and entrepreneurship to strengthen their business creation skills. They acquired skills that will allow them to access or create income-generating activities, thus allowing them to be more independent and safer. This activity of the Schools for Africa project allowed young people like Amadou, displaced from Dèbéré-Nangué in Gorom-Gorom area, to improve their sewing skills in Dori.
UNICEF Burkina Faso thanks the Japan national Committee for UNICEF and the People of Japan for their unwavering support to the children and women of Burkina Faso.
