The Local Lens:
Looking at Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa. Security remains one of the greatest challenges facing many communities in Burkina Faso, says Nathanael ALICT 2014 Alumni. Its effects include starvation, limited access to education and healthcare, displacement, and economic hardship. The security situation has persisted for nearly ten years, directly affecting more than two million people who continue to suffer the consequences. Yet, in this context there are local Christian leaders committed to seeing the Burkinabè’s lives transformed.

Furthermore, over the past three years, the government has made significant efforts to regain territories, resettle displaced populations, and invest strategically in agriculture and infrastructure. These efforts are expected to play an important role in improving living conditions and restoring stability for many communities, says Nathanael.
However he also identifies deeper social and spiritual challenges, including religious syncretism, polygamy, fatherlessness, and a lack of fatherly responsibility in children’s lives. These realities contribute to delinquency, school dropouts, early pregnancies, fatherlessness, and single motherhood.
To address these challenges, Nathanael leads a discipleship movement focused on children, youth, and women.

Every Saturday, around 300 children gather to receive mentoring from father figures and Christian teachers from different backgrounds. These mentors offer fatherly guidance, life-skills training, vocational development, Bible teaching, and discipleship support. The mothers of these children are also part of discipleship groups, where they take part in regular Bible studies and receive income-generating training and practical support to help them care for their families.

Nathanael has also partnered with another alumnus from Ethiopia and a Bible-based Christian spiritual institution which focuses on holistic development and transformation of youth, to establish youth centres, not only in his own community but in other areas of Bobo-Dioulasso as well. Through weekly gatherings, young people are given a space to be discipled, supported, and equipped.

Another local leader and ALICT alumnus, Jean Baptiste from Zagtouli, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, is using education and discipleship to empower the next generation.
He explains that the Church in Burkina Faso is facing challenges such as leadership conflict, weak discipleship, and a lack of deep-rooted relationship with God. Allowing for false teaching to spread in some communities because many people lack a strong understanding of God’s Word. Paired with political unrest and terrorist attacks, many communities in Burkina Faso are in desperate need of stability and purpose that is found in biblical truth and an authentic relationship with God.
To address some of these challenges he has conducted teachings in churches and with church leaders, including cross-denominational teaching, facilitating spaces that promote unity and strengthen the Church in Burkina Faso.

Because authentic and intentional discipleship is one of the greatest needs in Burkina Faso, education is a powerful tool to equip and empower the next generation. 

As the Regional Children Ministry Director, Jean Baptise works with 2000 children ministers, and as a collective they are serving 24,960 children in the region. Furthermore, he has written several books used by teachers and children’s ministry leaders, empowering them to serve children across Burkina Faso, raising up the next generation with a strong foundation. Jean Baptiste has demonstrated a clear understanding of his community’s needs and is using his influence in the education sector and among church leaders to address them.

Burkina Faso faces real and complex challenges. But through leaders like Nathanael and Jean Baptiste, we see how faithful local leadership can bring practical hope as well as personal transformation, through discipleship, skills training, and investment in the next generation.

Through our crowdfunding platform and small grant initiative, ITL has been able to support Jean Baptiste’s and Nathanael’s ministries, reflecting our belief that contextually relevant change results in sustainable impact and is best achieved by empowering and supporting local Christian leaders.

These are just two of more than 500 ALICT leaders in ITL’s global network, each equipped to bring transformation within their communities, sectors, and nations. Visit our Donate page to learn more about how you can support local leaders and the work of ITL-ALICT

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