Katrin Rohde and the Burkina Faso Ambassador guests at AMPO Danmark

It is a beautiful summer’s day in the lovely garden of a small villa on the outskirts of Aarhus in Denmark. There is a marquee to provide shade, cakes and refreshments are on offer and lots of happy faces are here to welcome me. AMPO Danmark is ten years old today.

I come here often to give talks. My Danish friends run the Association in a very special way. They all know each other, many of them are neighbours and so care and friendship play a pivotal role. I soon feel at home here – almost like in Africa. I’ve been staying as usual with Torben Würtz and his wife Jette since yesterday. Jette was responsible for the accredited adoption of children from Burkina Faso to Denmark and our paths crossed already in 1997. Working together we were able to bring about changes at government level for the benefit of small children who were often sold abroad to face a highly dubious future. These days she spends a lot of time knitting terrific kitchen cloths which I can only recommend. If you are interested you can get them from AMPO International in Germany. Jette has founded a knitting circle producing so much, especially in times of Corona, that the proceeds so far are enough to purchase the 15th wheelchair in Ouagadougou. Fantastic!

Her husband Torben is the Chairman of the AMPO Danmark Association. I’ve always known him as friendly, reliable and by no means afraid of hard work. Thank you Torben and all the other Board Members for the great job you are doing.

The Lions Club was also represented at the celebrations. The Lions Club has been supporting AMPO Danmark for many years. We once used their donation to buy a large bull for our farm and to show our gratitude we named him Mr Lion.

It was a great honour to receive a visit from the Burkina Faso Ambassador who travelled from Copenhagen specially to attend the event. She conveyed greetings and words of thanks on behalf of the Government of Burkina Faso who has always been very well disposed towards AMPO. Thank you, Excellency.