Crown Princess Mary’s Foundation supports girls in Burkina Faso

Crown Princess Mary of Denmark has directed a donation of $50,000 to the Gisèle Kambou Centre in Burkina Faso through her eponymous Mary Foundation.

In a statement on the Mary Foundation’s website, Crown Princess Mary said: “Girls and young women in Burkina Faso are struggling with having their most basic rights violated. It was heartbreaking to meet girls who, for example, are living with daily pain and health problems because they have been circumcised against their will. But it gives hope to see that there are strong and skilled organisations that give the girls an outstretched hand and help them as best they can—among other things—with getting an education and access to reproductive health care.

“The help that the Gisèle Kambou Centre provides to the girls helps to increase their chances of having a better future and giving their children better conditions than those they themselves have received. I’m really glad that we at the Mary Foundation can enable the centre to give more girls and expectant mothers access to education to ensure them a better future. I want to say thank you to the girls for standing up and telling their stories.”

Crown Princess Mary’s donation is being focused on access to education, whether to continue with schooling or to encourage more girls to attend school.

The donation comes months after Crown Princess Mary paid an official visit to Burkina Faso to visit projects associated with the health and education of girls and women. Each year, the Crown Princess chooses an organisation to support with an end-of-the-year donation to help advance their projects.

In a statement, Mariam Lamizana, President of the Voix de Femmes Association, which runs the Gisèle Kambou Centre, said that the Mary Foundation’s donation “will ensure schooling and vocational training for the girls and develop their leadership so that they can become ambassadors for the elimination of gender-based violence in Burkina Faso.

“It will therefore improve the lives of the many girls who survive or are at risk of gender-based violence. On behalf of the center, all the girls and their families, I express our joy and excitement at receiving this donation, and I express our infinite gratitude to Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess of Denmark.”

The Gisèle Kambou Centre was founded in 2005 and operates seven centres throughout Burkina Faso.

Past projects the Mary Foundation has supported include the Danish People’s Aid, the Danish Refugee Council, the Kabul Women’s Shelter, and Maternity Worldwide.