Nearly 20 years ago, a West African lady named Gisele began supporting a local orphanage in her village. She would help the staff when they went grocery shopping by babysitting the children. During this period, Gisele would teach elementary education topics. Over time the number of children under her care grew to more than 40, and the orphanage staff encouraged Gisele to open a school. In 2006, Gisele petitioned the local government to receive a charter for an elementary school. Her dream was to establish the school separately from the orphanage so that she could teach its children and help them achieve a better life. The government granted her petition with written understanding that it would not subsidize the school's financial needs. Today, the Gisele School educates over 200 children, with more than 80 orphans between two campuses. Despite continuous struggles, Gisele School was recognized in 2019 by the government's Ministry of Education for having a robust curriculum sufficient to permit her 5th graders to have the opportunity to gain advanced education that would qualify them for employment. At one time, faith-based groups routinely transited the region and supported the school. However, due to security concerns, such groups no longer transit the region, and support has declined sharply.

Gregory is a native of our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., in the United States. He is the oldest of three children. His father was killed when he was two and a half years old. He knows firsthand how it is to grow up without a father in less-than-ideal circumstances. Throughout Gregory’s life, he has worked in various roles within the fire service and healthcare profession in the military and private sectors. In September 2018, Gregory was preparing for his first deployment to Burkina Faso. He prepared what he thought would be a “one-time” care package for a school that he estimated would have up to forty children. After a couple of weeks in-country, he could visit Gisele’s School. To his surprise, he learned that, at that time, the school provided educational services for approximately 122 children. Many of the children were orphans. But despite the circumstances of their young lives, they were happy and sang their welcome song when a visitor entered their classroom. He was amazed at the teachers' care and attention toward the children. He said he felt like “a lot of little Me’s were running around, and the teachers reminded me of my mother.” That day, he made a personal pledge to help the school thrive in any way he could. Over the past two years, Gregory has donated several thousand dollars of his private funds to secure critically needed assets and consumables so the children can continue optimizing their learning. He continues to be active with fundraising efforts, raising awareness for the primary school and is a significant financial stakeholder for the cost of schooling for the fourteen students that have moved on to secondary school. Sadly, in a country such as Burkina Faso, many services, such as education, are not subsidized by the state. As of January 2021, Gisele’s Center for Education Organization has been established in the United States. This 501c non-profit organization was created to support Gisele’s School and her mission, for which Gregory serves as the president and board of directors. Gregory is a man of faith and would like all to keep in mind Proverbs 28:7, “Whoever gives to the poor will never lack.”

Eric was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He is in the early stages of a career in biotechnology, but his professional goals ultimately revolve around service and sustainability. He first heard about Gisele’s primary school in 2018 when a classmate from Keck Graduate Institute connected him with Gregory. Eric had previous experience with educational outreach conducted during a vaccine development research trip to Botswana in 2016 - 2017. Gregory sought collaborators to support what he saw emerging from Gisele's efforts. It was immediately apparent that this was a special and particularly impactful effort to join. Education is one of Eric’s pillars for an overall intersectional approach to social justice (with the others being healthcare, environment, opportunity, and equality), so he immediately jumped at the chance to assist with Gisele’s mission to educate and nourish students that would otherwise have no alternative. His primary contributions to the school involve strategic and financial support to cover the costs of teachers' salaries, secondary school fees for students who graduated from Gisele’s program, and food for the students as needed during the COVID-19 crisis. In his own words, “when you learn about the unjustifiable adversity in Burkina Faso, see the amount of effort that Gisele has put into the school despite hardships, and then see the outcomes of her work – both in the form of the student’s positive spirits as well as successful advancement to the next level of schooling, then acting on opportunities to support becomes simply the right thing to do.” He plans to be involved in the school indefinitely and is devoted to ensuring that there is never an issue due to a lack of resources.

Jean-Gabriel Coignet is an emergency medicine physician who was deployed to the region. He volunteered on-site at the school during off-duty hours, and saw the incredible work that Giselle and her team was doing to support the children and the neighborhood. He continues to support this charity through fundraising efforts and by translating when needed.