LET'S SEED THE FUTURE

The project activities are going on. In the villages of Boukombe and Manta it has been started the cultivation of hot pepper, soy and corn together with livestock breeding thanks to our microcredit. In the same villages training meetings were organized to help women to better manage their first harvest and the new credit tranche (expected by April 2016). This will be the best time for the cultivations because of the rain season that makes the ground more fertile. The same training meeting was organized in the villages of Toucountouna and Natingoufor 175 women. A few problems  were highlighted during the preparation of the activities because of the national and municipal elections, ended in March 2016. During this period some members of the groups were distracted by political issues and this   destabilized the normal work of the groups. Since the results of the first year of activity were good, new people asked to join the program, so new groups were created even though they were not calculated at the beginning. This caused some problems in the cash flow. This is the reason why some expected loans have been deferred and also why we would love to extend the project to 2017, if we could get new funds.

As far as the activities in the schools are concerned, we can say that we realized two vegetable gardens in two Italians schools and five in Benin.

In Italy, furthermore, children assisted to the planting of trees in their school gardens. It has helped them to understand the importance of plants in our ecosystem and the importance of taking care of them. Class room meetings about food and environment in Benin are still going. A workshop for Italian and Beninese teachers is planned in Benin by the end of June: this will offer the possibility for them to exchange about their experience and good practice.