projects
Center for Girls at Risk
Girls that become pregnant out of wedlock tend to end up on the streets. Many girls are sent by their families from the village to the city in the hope that they will be more successful there, and they end up serving as a domestic helpers in exchange for room and board. When these girls get raped and pregnant by a member of the host family, they are chased out to hide the shame of what happened.
Some girls escape pre-arranged marriages, in which girls in their early teens are given to much older men.
Others have escaped human trafficking. In recent years, we've seen more and more of these girls that have managed to escape and then end up at Pan Bila.
At the Pan Bila Center, these girls have found a safe place to eat, sleep, be clothed and receive the necessary medical and psychological care. In summary, they have all their basic needs met.
Pan Bila is part of the CIJER network, and works very closely with Kéoogo (formerly known as Doctors Without Borders), another of its member organisations. Kéoogo picks the girls up off the streets and brings them to Pan Bila. This helps to keep the location of the Pan Bila center slightly more secretive in an effort to protect the girls from those seeking to harm them.
Burkina Faso 
