By Dick Wheelock and Nigel England | Project Co-ordinators
Project Co-ordinator, Dick, writes, “I have recently returned from a two week visit to the Chez Papa Geoff orphanage in Benin, which is being supported by HATW.
It is now 10 years since my first visit and a lot has changed, but the warm, friendly welcome from the Beninoise certainly has not. Previously families relied on bicycles for transport but now most have small motorcycles which are modified to carry all manner of goods as well as passengers.
The village itself still relies heavily on fishing and subsistence farming. With the boom in new building throughout Benin, sand dredging is now a major employer on this stretch of the river.
Efforts to make the orphanage self-supporting through farming have, however hit a significant problem. The government has just introduced a fixed price on maize and cassava as well as banning the export thereof. These are the two main crops produced in the south of Benin and with maize fixed at around a third and cassava at a quarter of previous levels this hardly covers the cost of production even if labour is excluded. This has visibly affected the whole area with much less land than normal being cultivated for the main planting season.
For the orphanage land, this means that the only short rotation crops that can be grown are peanuts and haricot beans. While these are very good soil improvers, the profits are lower.
Longer term our local organisers are looking to increase the palm oil acreage as this is by far the most profitable crop and also provides much needed employment for processing the oil.”
Project Co-ordinator, Nigel, recounts his recent trip: “After a very long flight via Nairobi we arrived in Cotonou to be greeted by DD, the onsite coordinator. We had been told previously that there were issues with the batteries for the solar electricity, problems with the 2 tractors and that the well donated by the local mosque was not working. Over the 2 weeks we were there, the team managed to repair the tractors, get the well cleared of the fine sand that was causing the blockage and fit an electric pump to solve the problem. We also managed to source the batteries needed to fix the electricity at half the price of those sold in the UK.
The new office and class area that has been built at CPG is working very well and the children are getting on fine. Two young people have left the orphanage to take up apprenticeships, and are doing very well. Two new children have settled well and seem happy.
HATW volunteer, Jill, had been in the village for 2 weeks prior to our arrival and was getting on well with the children and teaching them a range of French songs. She also identified a need for 3 of the youngest children to have extra French lessons due to being behind in their school attendance prior to arriving at CPG. They will now benefit from extra tuition on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
DD has said that the 12 new young people who have been identified as most in need of a placement at CPG will start in June this year. Beds, mattresses, and lockers will be needed prior to the new intake.
On this trip we have managed to follow up with those assisted through the education support programme too. There are 105 young people being supported by HATW in secondary education with 6 young people in apprenticeships and 6 in university. We have also been asked to support a young man with disabilities who needs money to take his Baccalaureate, and then for sponsorship through university to take journalism.
Thank you for supporting this wonderful project!
By Bridget Higginson | Executive Officer
By Dick Wheelock & Nigel England | Project Co-ordinators
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