In 1997 I believed I could change the lives of the people who live in one of the poorest countries in the world, I was wrong, they changed mine. Since then I have had the honour of working alongside my friends in Burkina Faso as they build schools, sink wells, grow crops, heal people and improve each others lives. I am a trustee of Transform Burkina.

I have been involved with Burkina Faso since 2003. I first visited the country in 2005 and since then I have worked with teams on water well drilling projects and supported school building and local health centre development projects. Other projects have included the annual importation of a consignment of mangoes –some of the best in the world – direct from local Burkinabé farmers. I am the Chair of Transform Burkina.

I first visited Burkina Faso in 2008 and have been each year since then. I have seen, first hand, the importance and the difference that education can make in the lives of African children. Since my first visit I have focused on exploring opportunities to create school links for the benefit of students both in Burkina Faso and in the UK. I am a trustee of Transform Burkina.

My involvement with Burkina Faso began in the late 1990s when our local church helped finance some church and school buildings in Ouagadougou. Subsequently we sourced and financed a number of vehicles for export to Burkina along with medical and computer equipment. More recently it all became personal when my daughter married a Burkinabé. I am the Treasurer of Transform Burkina.

I went to Burkina Faso in August 2007 with the youth group from my local church, and have retained a strong interest in the country and its people every since. At the time I knew very little about Burkina Faso but from previous visits to African countries I knew it was somewhere I would be interested in going. However I wasn’t prepared for how touched I would be by the people we met. I am a trustee of Transform Burkina.

I have visited Burkina Faso on three occasions since 2008, each time with a group of sixth year pupils from the school where  I worked. The visits had a big impact on each team, as we recognised the importance of education ,which is something we have taken for granted.

Since then I have been supporting the work of Transform Burkina, and am now looking forward to being more involved in supporting education projects and seeing lives transformed. I am  a Trustee of Transform Burkina.