In 1999 Katrin Rohde decided to set up an orphanage for girls. Today the orphanage houses over 60 girls between the ages of 6 and 18, where AMPO ensures education and training. When parents are too poor to provide or if the parents are no longer alive, boys in Burkina Faso are often abandoned and end up living on the streets. Girls are more likely to be sent off to live with relatives and are often exploited as cheap labor, sometimes abused by other family members. Such circumstances make it difficult to assess a girl’s social and economic situation, yet AMPO is committed to helping these girls and offer them a secure and stable home.

The AMPO projects include the restaurant, Mam Dunia, where girls are trained in catering. The restaurant is open to the public, offering both traditional African food and modern European cuisine. There is also the AMPO tailoring and dressmaking programme, where girls can learn the trade from two master tailors.

At the age of eighteen, our girls have to leave the AMPO facilities, but AMPO continues to assist them financially and ensures they are supported until they can fend for themselves.