Support projects in Africa
Founded in 2003, the AFRANT (AFRika + ANTwerpen) association is a development initiative of the Cathedral of Antwerp. Through AFRANT, the Cathedral is linked to its sister parishes in two West African regions, Bénin and Burkina Faso, realising small-scale projects on the ground in the fields of education, basic health, water supply and agriculture. The approach relies on friendship, close contact, punctual follow-up and annual field visits.
AFRANT was born around 1995 from the friendship between a former Cathedral priest and two young colleagues in West Africa, from the region of Nouna in Burkina Faso and the region of Tanguieta-Materi-Cobly in Benin. Building schools began in 2000, followed by health centres and agricultural projects. Smaller-scale projects such as the construction of wells were also undertaken. In 2003, the non-profit organisation AFRANT was founded, which in 2020 was incorporated into the larger non-profit organisation The Cathedral.
AFRANT-day
Every autumn, it's AFRANT Day. Come and meet AFRANT while enjoying African and Belgian snacks. Details of the venue, date and time will follow on this page.
Newsletter
From September 2024, AFRANT sends out a newsletter (in Dutch) four times a year. Subscribe via the link on the Dutch page.
AFRANT in Burkina Faso
Currently, the Nouna region and the town of the same name in Burkina Faso are very unsafe; tens of thousands of people from the town and surrounding villages are fleeing rebels from neighbouring Mali. As a result of the many refugees, Nouna town has five times its normal population.
With four times the number of pupils anticipated, schools in Nouna are bursting at the seams, while the health centre in Nouna town is kept running 24 hours a day. AFRANT is therefore mainly concerned with education and health in that region, focusing its support on the needs of the local schools and the health centre.
