Burkina Faso is a landlocked French-speaking country in the Sahel region of West Africa. Compared to some of its neighbours, it has known relative stability and peace since independence in 1960, yet indicators show it is one of the poorest countries in the world.
The country has few natural resources and is dependent on agriculture and foreign trading partners. It is vulnerable to droughts and food shortages, and in recent years, desertification, deforestation and swarms of locusts have affected national harvests.
High levels of child and maternal mortality are associated with poor water and sanitation, which spread diseases such as cholera, typhoid, malaria, dysentery and diarrhoea.
Huge stigma surrounds HIV in Burkina Faso because it is associated with witchcraft and sexual promiscuity. An estimated 260,000 children have lost one or both parents to AIDS-related illness.
Though the number of girls attending school is increasing fast, in rural areas many are forced into early marriage that stifles their education. Female genital mutilation is illegal, but still widely practised.
The church is well established throughout the country, but a minority (more or less ten per cent) of the population are Christians. There is tolerance between Muslims and Christians, and in recent years, awareness has grown of the need for the church to be involved in integral mission.