Education Benin Project #8520

Supporting village children into school in Benin

by HANDS AROUND THE WORLD

Project Report | May 14, 2012
May 2012 Report

By Geoff Burnett | HANDS AROUND THE WORLD Project Co-ordinator

The three Dogba School classrooms have been structurally finished and all are in daily use for teaching. The village children - pupils at the school - took responsibility with their parents and the headteacher for clearing the site of
building materials and creating attractive and dry learning spaces. The recent flooding did not enter the building though dugouts were used to ferry pupils to the school.

There remains only the essential plastering and painting of the structure to provide the best chance of sustaining its use for many years to come. Funding of £2000 is currently being sought for this purpose. Can you help please?

It is pleasing to report that following on from the charity's earlier support for children attending primary school within the community there has been significant progress in enabling orphan pupils to sustain an education programme.

We are extremely grateful for the financial support of all donors and in particular for the generosity of one couple who have made the Abopha Orphan Project their personal mission. This year there are 48 young people attending
secondary schools, 7 apprenticeships and for the first time 4 of the group are successfully enrolled at the University of Calavi-Abomey in Cotonou. It is intended to maintain and extend this programme.

During volunteer visits in 2011 it was realised that there were homeless orphan youngsters in the region and so the Abopha President and Committee decided to attempt to seek support for the building of a residential training centre in Affame. Land has been purchased and cleared and a plan drawn up for the proposed centre for, initially, around 20 young people. 5 of the committee have made a commitment to permanently staff the Centre. The training programme will include farming, carpentry, tailoring, the production of 'red oil' and computing.

In order to support the staff and provide a basic level of sustained income, volunteers will visit the community this summer and will be taking a tractor and farming implements, computers and bicycles to facilitate secondary school attendance. All considerations of making financial donations to this next development will be most welcome.

We aim also to continue and extend the programme of support for children with physical disabilities.

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Feb 13, 2012
Benin visit update

By Geoff Burnett | HANDS AROUND THE WORLD Benin project co-ordinator

HANDS AROUND THE WORLD supporters currently sponsor 52 orphans to attend primary and secondary schools with 6 years of funding promised. The programme started in April 2010. 4 students are now also sponsored to attend Calavi/Abomey University in Cotonou. Dieudonne (DD) has escorted them to the University for their enrollment following their success in the Baccalaureate. Also within this programme there are 7 apprentices in current training.

Medical support has been given to five young people in Affame with funding from past volunteer group members and others. Those helped are Aubin, Herve, Clement, Mikhail and Soulange.

Every Saturday around 16 orphans attend computer lessons with Natalie (DD’s wife) or Adeline Affaton, with help from HATW supporters.

The three Dogba classrooms are very nearly finished. Two are in use and the third requires a row of roofing tiles before completion. A stairway structure will be modified to permit two entry points. Plastering and painting has not been done yet but is essential.

Flooding this year lasted for three months but did not enter the three classrooms. Our visit necessitated a long crossing by pirogue (dug-out canoe) - estimated to be around one mile from Aschonsa - and a walk in the river and mud up to our knees!

Dieudonne has the first contract for the production of roofing tiles using the Parry machine. He aims to supply around 600 tiles to Raphael for the village. He was given start-up funding for cement from 2 volunteers.

Children who have lost both parents are particularly vulnerable and following the death of one parent, sometimes the children are rejected or are maltreated by the new wife or new husband.

There is the need for a centre for the protection of young orphans and young physically handicapped and for their training and development which we would like to see undertaken through HATW soon. 600 sq. metres of land in Affame has been purchased and cleared in preparation for a centre

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Nov 29, 2011
Engineer's report

By Dick Wheelock | Engineer and HATW volunteer

Dogba School

26^th Oct 2011

I revisited Dogba after an absence of 2.5 years. Flood water was about 75cm deep throughout the village and the crossing from Affame was about a mile long. The newer 3 classrooms built by HATW certainly are working well and were piled high with all the desks from the remaining classrooms (which are not high enough to prevent water ingress at full flood.

2 of the 3 classrooms are being fully used and all damage caused by the falling walnut tree has been neatly repaired.

Some minor work remains to be done on last classroom:-

A 2 further rows of tiles (about 50) are required on the roof.

B Achilles (school director) requested the repositioning of the door, so about 10square metres of
ventilated blockwork has to be built but blocks are already cast.

C Currently there is a double flight of steps from ground level part way along the building and Dieu Donne proposes to move one flight of steps further west to improve access.

The third classroom has been built to a better standard than the initial two and the alterations we made to the floor casting method worked well.

Dieu Donne has obviously put a great deal of effort into the project but admits that he under-estimated the logistical problems involved in a site with no road access.These problems were compounded by the Parry design which
was much more complicated than needed. This has resulted in a building which, whilst fulfilling its requirements was more expensive than anticipated..

The major work now required is the rendering of the outside which, as explained in my previous report, is important to prolong the life of this building. Obviously the sooner this work is completed the better.

On a practical level it would be quite possible to do the remedial works A B and C at the same time as the rendering as Dieu Donne and team would have to mix the mortar in any case although they would be employing the local
contractor to apply it.

Further funds are now needed to complete the work (about £2000). Please can you help?

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