An Ealing woman is 4,000 miles from home helping improve the lives of women and girls in Burkina Faso.

As Amy Fraser comes to the end of her placement, she is speaking out about her experience and encouraging other young Brits to get involved.

Amy, a former St Augustine's Priory pupil, and former Newcastle University Student has been working as part of a team of young British and Burkinabé volunteers on a project to increase women’s economic empowerment, enabling them to run profitable and sustainable businesses.

Women and girls make up more than half the world’s population, but are often more deeply affected by poverty than their male counterparts. In rural Burkina Faso, many women have no means of earning an independent income, which makes them more vulnerable to poverty, and stops them reaching their full potential.

Amy and her team mates have been working with rights-based development charity, International Service, and its partner organisation AVO, which promotes the rights of women and children.

Amy and her team have been working with AVO, teaching French and English to the children of AVO, running community meals, delivering awareness-raising sessions on health and hygiene. Amy’s team have also worked with the women of AVO, deliver training sessions to enable the women to earn a fair income.

Amy travelled to Burkina Faso through the International Citizen Service (ICS) programme, funded by UK Aid. She says:

“ICS was an amazing experience which made me learn so much about myself, others and a whole different culture. The language barrier was a challenge but I was a paired with an incredible Burkinabè volunteer who helped me through this so I improved my French and he improved his English. Working with AVO has been fantastic as I was able to learnt so much about the women and children who come here, whilst teaching them skills and developing my own.”

ICS volunteers work alongside young local volunteers in some of the poorest communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America on issues like sexual health, education and economic empowerment. You don’t need cash, skills or qualifications to take part – just the ambition to make a difference.

“I applied for ICS because I wanted to experience another culture and make a positive difference at the same time. I was really pleased when I found out I’d be working on a women’s rights project, because it’s something I feel strongly about. No one should be denied opportunities because of their sex, and if we’re serious about ending poverty we need to empower women and girls to make the contributions they’re clearly capable of.”

“Coming to Burkina Faso and seeing the challenges young people face here has made me realise how important it is that countries like the UK contribute to projects that fight poverty in developing countries. There are so many issues that affect people around the world – whether it’s sexual health, girls’ education or access to safe drinking water – and it’s great that ICS offers young people the chance to help solve these. I’d definitely encourage other young people to think about applying.”

As well as making a difference in some of the world’s poorest communities, ICS volunteers gain valuable skills and experience. When Amy gets back to the UK on 25th June, she will take on an ‘Action at Home’ project, to make sure that her new skills also benefit people in the UK.

Felicity Morgan, Director of ICS at VSO, said: “ICS volunteers like Amy are doing amazing work around the world, every day. Our volunteers have helped promote children’s rights in Nigeria, campaign against child marriage in Bangladesh and bring safe drinking water to communities in Nepal.  

“We’re incredibly proud that UK Aid is supporting young Brits bring about positive change in some of the world’s poorest communities, enabling them to develop their skills and confidence, and then also applying their time and effort in projects in their local communities in the UK, and we’d love more young people from Ealing to take that first step and apply.”

For more information about ICS and how to apply, visit http://www.volunteerics.org/