Plan works hard to provide all children with education in West Africa

1 December, 2011: In line with Plan’s global focus on disability and inclusion, Plan Benin has started working with a new school in Cotonou for children who are deaf, providing hearing aids for all the students in order to make learning easier.

Originally set up as an association in 2005 by students who attended the country’s first public school for the deaf, and with support from agencies including the International Francophone Agency, the school now teaches 64 students and has a preschool for younger deaf children.

The school is designed to provide suitable surroundings for the students to learn skills in commerce and business, and to be able to communicate with one another and make new friends who share the same challenges as they do. They learn very practical skills such as building furniture, making jewellery, sewing and hairdressing.

For the parents, the school provides their children with a safe environment designed to help children who are deaf to learn skills that they can use for employment in the future. “We were asked by several parents of children who are deaf to set up the school,” said William Loko-Roka, director of the centre. “The parents couldn’t keep the children at home and teach them, and other schools would not provide education for children who are deaf.”

For children who have to travel far to come to the centre, there is a dormitory of 10 beds and the students can enjoy healthy meals every day. “Our philosophy here is to not leave any children without education. That is why we do the best we can to provide them with a good school education,” William Loko-Roka tells us.

With plans in the future to extend the school, building more classrooms and a bigger dormitory, the centre hopes to be able to reach a larger number of children.  “We need to extend the school or we will not have enough space for other students who sign up for the centre each year,” William Loko-Roka explains.

Posters encourage association members to have faith and believe in themselves

30 November, 2011: Mariatou* is larger than life and brimming with energy. In the courtyard of the compound belonging to the association where she is president, she bustles about organising the other members into action. Mariatou lives in Couffo, a region in the south west of Benin with the country’s highest rate of people living with HIV/Aids – 3.3% compared to the national prevalence of 1.7%.

Diagnosed as positive some seven years ago, Mariatou now heads up an association of nearly 100 members from the same community, all of whom also have HIV. They meet every Wednesday to share experiences and discuss how to extend the group’s income-generating activities – breeding rabbits and chickens, making garri (cassava flour) – as well as to explore microfinance opportunities, and the best ways to take care of children from households affected by HIV/Aids.

Helping others

Mariatou’s dynamism makes her the perfect candidate to counsel newly diagnosed mothers and to break down the stigma associated with having HIV.  She works closely with a Plan project in the region that helps prevent mother to child transmission and makes home visits to check on people’s health. Once the health workers from the Famille et Santé project know that a woman who is HIV positive falls pregnant, they distribute bed nets to help keep malaria at bay and advise her on how to keep healthy.

Maiatou’s husband, who was never tested, died several years ago but she had seen enough images of people living with HIV/Aids on TV to know what he had died from.  She has an eight-year-old daughter who is negative and, although she remarried, took the decision not to have any more children.

“AIDS snatched my husband from me and threatened to separate me from my only daughter.  I found a new husband who is also HIV positive. At first he was ashamed and did not come to the association. Through my work he now also testifies openly and he even speaks on the radio and television to sensitise people on HIV prevention. People don’t believe I’m really sick because physically I look very well.”

With the money earned from breeding farm animals, the association has been able to set up a solidarity fund that enables the poorest members to cope with medical expenses.  They have also invested in a water pump to enable them to carry on farming during the dry season.

Other groups

A short drive away in Djakotomey, the same entrepreneurial spirit shows at an association for people living with HIV/Aids, the majority of whom are widows.  Here they make scented soap to sell at 200 CFA a bar (or around 25 pence).

Plan supports the association by providing food kits as well as school equipment for some of the children. Prosper*, 19, whose father died 3 years ago from HIV, explains how such support has allowed him and his siblings to continue with their studies. “The food kit has helped us to keep our health in order to go to school.”

Plan’s support for the associations

By offering nutritional, educational and vocational training, as well as psychosocial and legal support for people living with HIV/Aids and their families, Plan aims to empower these individuals so that they can plan for their future.

“We meet to share our difficulties, by doing so we have started to become autonomous, to do something for ourselves,” Mariatou shares.

*Names changed for protection reasons

Irish parliament member Michelle Mulherin showed her support to the children in the region

9 November, 2011: Plan Benin and Plan Ireland have been working together closely on children’s needs for rights and access to education. Recently, 2 Irish Members of Parliament, Michelle Mulherin and Anthony Lawlor, visited Benin to show their support for the work that Plan does in the Couffo region.

Showing what Plan does

During their time there, they were able to see new latrines built with Plan’s help in a public school in Gnamamey, as well as visit a community in Tochangni benefiting from a microfinance project.

Michelle and Anthony were particularly impressed by the benefits and positive effects of the work of the savings and loans communities in Tochangni and applauded the community members for using the profit they make to put their children through school.

The visits to the schools in Gnanmamey and Totchangni were a great opportunity to showcase Plan’s important work in education and children’s rights. Plan supported the communities in the construction of the school, and provided equipment and working latrines which are crucial to helping keep children – and particularly girls - in school.

Plan works hard to promote children’s rights and universal education across not only Benin, but the whole of West Africa. The Irish parliament members were able to see for themselves how important education and the promotion of children’s rights are for the children in Couffo, and witnessed firsthand Plan’s work to help communities build, set up and maintain schools.

The Benin team also showcased Plan’s work to end violence against children. Visiting a local radio station, the Irish parliament members met children from a local media club who run a radio programme about the causes, consequences and solutions to violence and abuse against children.

Plans for the future

Michelle and Anthony have promised to keep in contact with Plan Benin and hope to be able to provide more support for Plan in the future.

 October 6, 2011: They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and through images we can convey a stronger and more meaningful message. In celebration of the regional launch of the ‘Because I am a girl’ campaign annual report in Benin, Plan organised an exhibition of children’s artwork, photography and images aimed at showcasing children’s views of the situation of girls in society today, and help raise awareness of their rights.

Running from 20th September until 1st October, the exhibition has helped to promote and convey the important message of Plan’s campaign: raising awareness of women’s rights, and encouraging women to follow their dreams, regardless of what society says.

The art show

Many visitors attended the exhibition, finding the images and artwork powerful, and becoming overwhelmed and emotional at the messages conveyed. “Our children are very talented and their works speak to us better than any well prepared speech,” exclaimed one visitor. Another added, “Thanks to the children’s works, I now realize the gravity of the discriminatory treatment made to our children according to their gender and the negative consequence this may have on girls’ development.”

Prior to this exhibition, Plan Benin organised a drawing contest for children under 18 years old on the theme: “discriminations experienced by girls due to their gender and age.” In total, 175 pieces of artwork were collected throughout the country. The 12 most powerful pieces were selected and are central to the exhibition, and the 12 artists received awards during the launch ceremony. All artwork is on display, alongside images by professional photographers, whose photos show women doing jobs that are traditionally considered men’s activities demonstrating that females are as intelligent and capable as males.

In addition, Plan organised photography training for 12 girls from Plan’s programme areas, where they captured images of the daily challenges girls face in their environment. The results were outstanding. The real and touching images that stress the discrimination between girls and boys in the society helps raise awareness of women’s rights, central to the ‘Because I am a girl’ campaign 2011.

 Read more about the 'Because I am a girl' campaign

Science workshop: learning how to distill salt water in to drinkable water

October 4, 2011: Summer camps offer children an opportunity to explore new things in a safe environment. Away from their families, they must express themselves, cooperate with others and lead when it is called upon them to do so. Camps engage children to think about the larger picture, being responsible members of society, through arts, science and fun. Summer camp is a wonderful environment in which to teach children about their rights.

For two weeks this past August, Plan Benin in partnership with several other NGOs hosted such a camp for 62 children. The campers, 30 boys and 32 girls, were chosen to attend the camp by village leaders and their peers.

Workshops

Campers were divided into groups and guided by counsellors from the US Peace Corps, NOVI (a local NGO) and Plan. Each day, campers discussed leadership issues including their rights as children, the right to quality education, forced / early marriage, how children can participate in their communities and HIV and AIDS.

The leadership sessions were followed by sessions in the arts and sciences that were both educational and practical. Arts sessions were creative (decoration, silk screening, painting and drawing) and dramatic (storytelling, acting, music). Of particular interest was a workshop about the history and significance of the Balafon, a musical instrument similar to a xylophone with calabashes helping to amplify the sound.

The science sessions gave campers hands-on experience in practical matters. They learned the science behind and how to build and use biogas (collecting the gas from the biological breakdown of organic matter), solar powered cookers, wind energy and distilling salt water into fresh drinkable water. Campers also created artificial ecosystems to gain a better understanding of their environment and how to maintain it.

Learning new skills

These workshops gave the campers the chance to explore new talents, learn new skills and understand how things work.  Team building exercises helped grow their confidence in speaking to one another and expressing their opinions even in diverse groups.

In the closing ceremonies, the campers performed short play and sketches that informed the audience of their parents and local officials about the issues they had discussed during the sessions. The campers promised to continue sharing this knowledge and raising awareness about their rights with their families and the other children in their communities.

One camper, Expédit, summed up the experience, “We discovered many wonders which were mysteries to us. We all feel more confident and comfortable thanks to the camp and Plan Benin.”

Children from Porto Novo had also participated in the practice session 

6 June 2011: From 9th to 13th May 2011, Plan Benin hosted a training for 28 participants from NGOs affiliated with the Central Office of Technical Assistance (BCAT) on Child Participation through the Child to Child Approach. The training was facilitated by Eleonore Soglohoun, Plan Benin Rights Of the Child Advisor, Michel Kanhonou from WARO and Gérard Amouzouvi from AEDOB-ONG (Association pour les Ecoliers, Eleves et Etudiants Desherités et Orphelins du Benin), with support from Global Excel International.

The training was presented through themes: Rights of Child, Child Participation and Child to Child. Participants learned theory but also practiced the six steps of this approach: problem identification, research, discussion, action plan, action and evaluation. Children living in the Centre Magone of Don Bosco’s Home in Porto Novo, where the training was held, participated in the practice sessions and even performed sketches on corporal punishment.

Everyone was enthusiastic about the approach that positions the child at the centre of the community development.

This training is the result of the partnership between the BCAT and Plan Benin for NGOs working on the European Union funded Project 2 that combats child trafficking. This training participants come from field based NGOs that frequently work with children. They are now have an increased understanding of the benefits of child participation and how to engage them.

Plan Benin Country Director Bell’Aube Houinato and the BCAT Project Manager Representative Mrs. Christine Djivoh-Atchade thanked the participants and presented certificates at the close of the training.

The participant’s delegate thanked Plan and BCAT in his closing comments: “We are very happy with this training. We are now more confident in our work with children thanks to Plan Benin and BCAT. We understand that children have the right to participate and how to facilitate their participation. There is so much more to learn, we hope other trainings will soon follow.”

Read more about Plan's work in Benin.

Nadya Kassam from Plan International speaking at the HRC event

Three children from Plan partner countries represented peers living and working on the street during the recent UN Human Rights Council on 9th March. The council dedicated its 16th session of the Day on the Rights of the Child to the topic of street and working children. Beatrice* (age 17) from Benin discussed with state delegates, NGOs, UN agencies and individual experts.

Talking from the experience

Representing Plan’s long standing partner organization, the African Movement of Working Children and Youth (MAEJT), Beatrice was selected by the Executive Managerial Group of the movement to represent her country during the session. She spoke of the dire conditions that large numbers of street children have to face in everyday life.

“A great number of children still live in miserable conditions: they walk long distances to work, some are taken out of school or leave to work as domestics or street sellers. Some of them have to turn to begging or prostitution, and get involved with street gangs and robbery. They are homeless and sleep in the markets, helping women living there wash the dishes or sell cakes in order to have something to eat. They are often chased by security forces and sometimes imprisoned,” said the 17-year-old.

Street children have to face dire conditions: they are homeless, forced to begging or prostitution and sometimes imprisoned

Beatrice dropped out of school after the 4th class and used to beg on the streets when her mother couldn’t afford her schooling any more after her father’s death. Thanks to MAEJT, she took part in hairdressing training and currently sells cakes at the market and attends a sewing course. At night she takes French classes and together with other members of her group helps other children living on the streets of Benin.

“Thanks to my association many of us (street children) were able to return to their families and learn a trade. MAEJT meets the children, listens to them and facilitates their social and professional integration. Among our working groups we have children working and taking up many jobs such as dressmaker, hairdresser, cabinet makers, motorbike taxis, train stations attendants, mechanics, house-helps, sellers, shoe shiners and also more and more children are working independently their own businesses. We create the conditions so that all children can fully benefit from their rights,” explained Beatrice.

An issue requiring urgent action

During this 16th session of UN Human Rights Council attending states discussed problems of street children and key challenges including the issue of violence that affects many street children.

"After today’s session I hope you will ask your government to establish structures for child participation. You say you like hearing from the children here – well, you must do it in your own country, not just here, at the UN,” said Paulo Pinheiro, Commissioner and Reporter on Children's Rights at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

“We cannot close our eyes in front of this situation and let the children work or live in such miserable conditions – everyone must get involved,” concluded Beatrice.

* Name changed for child protection reasons

Read more about Plan's work in Benin.

More than 25,200 people have just received food aid to help them recover from the Benin floods

10 February 2011: Plan has just distributed food aid to 25,275 people struggling to survive after last year’s floods in Benin. 

Thousands of families are still vulnerable after houses and crops were destroyed by flooding from September to November - the worst the country has seen in a century.

More than 5,000 packs - each containing enough food to feed a family for 1 month - were delivered to the badly affected areas of Couffo and Atacora. The aid was paid for by a US$235,000 grant from the World Food Programme and is part of Plan’s continuing disaster response work. 

Vital relief

Plan teams have been on the ground helping families since the floods first hit. So far our response includes providing food, temporary shelters for displaced families, essential drugs, psychosocial care for people suffering emotional distress, and running health awareness campaigns.

Activities are currently underway to screen and provide assistance and care to malnourished children in the municipalities of Cobly, Lalo and Lokossa.

Rebuilding lives

In the coming weeks Plan will distribute building materials and school kits as well support the rebuilding of houses and schools destroyed by flooding. Communities will also be trained in disaster risk reduction to help limit the impact of future disasters. 

According to the United Nations, over 680,000 people in 55 of the country’s 77 municipalities have been affected by the floods, and more than 105,000 people lost their homes.

Find out more about Plan’s work in Benin.

Read about Plan’s global emergencies work.

Support our work and make a donation.

A mother with her son receiving food aid from Plan

8 December 2010: Due to the heavy seasonal rains, 680,000 out of 8,500,000 people living in Benin, have been affected by this year’s floods. People have lost their houses, granaries, crops and seeds.

To help affected communities, Plan’s Disaster Response has allocated an emergency fund of US $ 175,000 for disaster relief activities like food distribution, especially to the victims in Couffo (150 km from Cotonou, economic capital of Benin) and Atacora department  (located in the North, 565 km from Cotonou).

Plan is helping feed out family

Plan distributed 67.5 kg of maize, 9 kg of cowpeas, 2 kg of sugar, 4L of cooking -oil, mosquito nets per household for one month. “By providing this support, we are sure that children affected by this disaster will be fed and can grow up healthy," said Hyacinthe Lodéou, Plan’s Coordinator for Households Economic Security and  Disaster Focal Point for Plan’s Program Area in the Couffo department.

"Water has ravaged everything, there’s no fish in rivers; crops are destroyed. I had to beg to feed my family. Thanks to Plan and the food allowance I received, I am now relieved,” said Kakpo Wouèvi, a beneficiary living in Deve, in a district of Dogbo.

To date, Plan Benin has helped 328 families in Dogbo district, thus, the  Mayor of the district, Vincent Akakpo, has expressed his gratitude to Plan in these terms. "Plan Benin is the first NGO which responded to my help appeal. Plan’s methods are really making a change, the food is distributed and people in my district are no longer hungry,” he said.

Plan has also provided 60 tents which will serve as temporary shelters for refugee families and 300 school kits for children in Couffo and Atacora departments. This will allow to free schools for the resumption of educational activities.

More support needed

Plan is distributing tickets which determine food allowance for each family

Plan is spreading its relief and food provision activities. The distribution is currently held at the districts of Cobly (122 families) and Kérou (244 families), the most affected districts of Atacora department. Other products such as Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN), Aquatabs tablets to purify water, essential drugs and the rebuilding of schools are scheduled for the next few days. Plan is also carrying out awareness raising campaigns for the prevention of diseases like malaria, cholera and other waterborne diseases.

Plan needs more support to assist disaster victims. Support Plan’s work by making a donation.

Mother and her newborn twins who participated in Plan's project

The Global Fund

Like many countries in the West African sub-region, Benin suffers from a general HIV epidemic. Infection rates reached a plateau in 2002 at 1.2% of the adult population (aged 15 to 49), 29,000 children were rendered orphans by the disease. Recently however, the infection and transmission rates in Benin threaten to rise due to the prevalence of high risk groups: sex workers and their clients, men who have sex with men (MSM) and injecting drug users (IDUs), especially in urban areas. In 2007, 64,000 Beninese were living with HIV/AIDS, 58% of those were women.

Plan has been operational in Benin since 1994. Working with the cooperation of the Ministry of Health and local partners, Plan implemented the Prevention Care and Treatment Program in 2002 to reach people with education, awareness raising and health information. The program’s HIV/AIDS prevention activities include: counseling, volunteer testing and prevention of the transmission from parent to child; and care for those living with HIV to support orphan and vulnerable children. In the first year of the project Plan provided services to about  500 000 people.

A Multi-Pronged Approach to Prevention

The Plan HIV/AIDS Prevention Care and Treatment Project aims to reduce the morbidity and mortality rates of people living with AIDS while protecting the rest of population from contracting the disease. Plan also provides care, treatment and community support to selected high-risk groups: female sex workers, youth aged 15 to 24, and infants born to infected mothers. Plan is also working to improve access to HIV behaviour change communication, provide nutritional, educational, vocational training and socioeconomic, psychosocial and legal support to people living with AIDS and their families. The education and outreach efforts include media, training of peer educators and community health workers.

With The Global Fund award, Plan will expand its operations in Benin and Togo by partnering with organizations, such as: PSI, Catholic Relief Services, ABPF (Benin Family planning Association), PlaNet Finance, CARITAS, GIP Esther, Consortium OFEDE and CARE. During the project, Plan anticipates providing psychosocial basic support package to 4750 people living with HIV/AIDS (men and women) and 15260 orphans and vulnerable children (boys and girls). Plan also aims to train 1483 peer educator in interpersonal communication techniques for community awareness and distribute 9,560,331 male and female condoms. The first set of activities will finish in December 2012 (in the Phase 1 of the project) and will continue in the Phase 2 until 2015.

Read more about Plan's work in Benin.

A flooded school - one of hundreds damaged across Benin

11 November 2010: Since August, heavy seasonal rains have caused localized flooding, disrupting businesses, uprooting families and closing schools across much of Benin.  In 55 of 77 municipalities, 680,000 people, including nearly 64,500 children under five, have been affected. Rains still continue to fall, especially in the north of the country. Plan is providing emergency relief to the affected communities distributing food items, essential drugs, mosquito nets and treatment kits.

Education at risk

Floodwaters are disrupting the school year for tens of thousands of children. Standing water has damaged or closed many schools. Some schools are serving as temporary shelters for 150,000 people left homeless by the floods. If schools are not damaged and can open, many children and teachers cannot safely reach the school from the flood waters.  More than 425 public schools were damaged and 179 schools remain flooded. The most affected are schools in Departments of Mono-Couffo (140 schools flooded), Atlantique Littoral (71 schools damaged), Borgou-Alibori (37 schools damaged, including 35 still under water) and Oueme-Plateau (152 schools damaged).

“We are now living in the classrooms because we have nowhere else to go,”- said Joseph, a villager from Zonglobohoue, Dogbo District, where 25 families with 103 children lost their goods, their crops and their houses.

Deteriorating conditions

The crowded living conditions, stress and standing water combine to increase the vulnerability of affected communities and children in particular to disease including cholera and malaria. Plan Benin has conducted a child protection assessment survey in Mono-Couffo that found children living in flooded homes, lacking hygiene, access to clean water and adequate nutritious food. Families are under increased stress to survive, raising the possibility of trafficking and abuse of children.

Plan response

Children are the most vulnerable to the outbreak of disease; they lack hygiene, access to clean water and nutritious food

Plan Benin has developed a response and recovery plan for affected families in the Mono-Couffo, Cobly and Kerou districts that addresses the immediate needs of shelter and protection of children. Families seeking shelter in schools will be moved to temporary housing with greater access to water and sanitation. Plan will supply each family in the temporary shelters with 25 tablets of Aquatabs to purify water for a month, food items, essential drugs, mosquito nets and treatment kits.

The schools will be repaired and reopened so children can begin to resume a ‘normal’ life. Each child will receive educational packages including notebooks, pens, pencils and rubbers from Plan. More than 20,000 people in these highly impacted districts will be assisted over the next several months by Plan.

With more than $1 million required to the relief effort, Plan needs your support.  To help Plan restore lives in Benin and continue our on-going work to protect children, please make a donation today.

Stagnant water affects everyday life of the Beninese people

22 October 2010: Heavy seasonal rains have caused flooding across Benin affecting the lives of more than 360,000 people. Plan has released US $175,000 from the emergency fund to provide support to the affected communities. The rains are still continuing, hindering emergency relief efforts and leaving people more vulnerable to the disaster.

Families at risk

In communities across Benin, some 98,000 homes, clinics and businesses were damaged or destroyed by the flood waters, including more than 600 schools. Immediate food supplies have been compromised or destroyed. Families are seeking temporary shelter with friends, family members or in public buildings including schools not affected by the floods.

Children in flood affected communities, including around 64 500 children under five (according to the Government of Benin and UN); have become especially vulnerable to outbreaks of disease including cholera, malaria, diarrhoea, skin conditions and respiratory infections. Already, 800 cases of cholera have been reported. Medical supplies to treat or prevent these conditions are running short.

The floods have also caused extensive damages to agriculture and the market economy it supports. The long-term food security of the region is at risk. It is estimated that a full year of food crops along with seeds have been lost. A reported 40% of the national rice, maize and millet production have been destroyed. Government officials reported that rotted crops left 200,000 people in fear of a longer lean season or famine in the coming year.

The rising waters have not dampened the community spirit. “The whole community is helping, even the priest offered a temporary shelter to 10 families flooded from their homes,” said Philomene Thanate, a 35-year-old widow and mother of five children from North Benin.

Plan responds

“Plan was working in the affected communities before the floods came,” said Bell’Aube Houinato, Plan Benin Country Director. “Providing disaster and then recovery assistance is a natural extension of our programmes to improve the lives of children.”

For 16 years, Plan has been working in Benin benefiting more than 16,000 children in 110 communities and protecting them from work trafficking to Nigeria, Gabon and Angola. To address the effect of flood on local population, Plan is committed to helping the survivors in the short term and through the recovery. Working with local partners and authorities in the Mono/Couffo and Atakora regions, Plan’s immediate actions will include:

• 

  Due to the heavy rainfall many houses have collapsed leaving families without shelter

  provision of corn, beans, rice, oil, sugar, soya and cassava in Couffo and Atacora
• information, education and communication on hygiene (IEC) and disease prevention
• distribution of water purification drugs   
• distribution of 5,000 impregnated bed nets and first care drugs 
• distribution of tent and shelter supplies
• repairs to schools affected by flooding or serving as shelters
  

Plan anticipates providing nearly US $1million in immediate relief and recovery programmes to the affected communities. To help Plan respond to the devastating floods in Benin, make a donation to Plan.