APRIL 2004

Update to the Board on our work in Benin

Dr. Fitigu Tadesse

Fitigu Tadesse thanks the chief who donated the land for the Avlame Epicenter.

SPIA Work

THP-Benin has expanded its work to two more epicenters, bringing the total to nine epicenters. The total population of our partners in these areas is approximately 800,000 people.

In November 2003 the epicenter at Avlamè was officially inaugurated by the Minister of Agriculture of Benin.. The Epicenter Strategy is recognized by the government as an important tool to mobilize rural populations for the end of hunger and poverty.

Vision, Commitment and Action workshop: Animators

THP-Benin continues to organize VCA workshops every month in all the nine epicenters. So far, THP Benin has given the VCA workshop to over 28,000 men and women and 700 trained men and women Animators will work in their own villages as partners to support and empower people to be self-reliant in ending their own hunger and poverty. THP-Benin has reported that our partner populations and local government officials very much appreciate the workshops and their transformational effect on the rural populations.

Catalytic projects

Increased Food Production and Food Security

THP-Benin is continuously empowering and supporting the increased participation by women in food production and income-generating activities. Women through the AWFFI program secure credit and training in food production with improved seeds and appropriate techniques for growing vegetables and food processing. These projects have improved the household income by 20% as compared to previous years.

Irène Mensah, AWFFI national coordinator

Food Bank

The establishment of the Food Bank in each epicenter in Benin is a critical aspect of the epicenter strategy requiring the full cooperation of the population in maintaining a supply of cereals in storage to protect against shortages between harvests.

Rural Banks

The micro-credit program of THP both for men and women is an important tool to enable rural populations to work towards sustainable development in the villages. This program has created the possibility of achieving self-reliance in the long run, which is our major objective on the way to end of hunger and poverty.

We expect that, during 2004, the profits from these income generating activities and the interest and loan repayments as well as savings which are the elements of the Revolving Fund will enable THP-Benin to create Rural Banks in one or two epicenters.

Welcome sign for Jennifer Thomson and Fitigu Tadesse at the Dogbo Epicenter.

Literacy Program

Adult literacy in the local language is an important tool for achieving self-reliance and the end of hunger. This program is targeting mainly women who are the major players in the work of ending hunger and poverty not only at household level but society wide. THP-Benin has acquired teaching materials from the government and created over 20 different centers to encourage members to read and write in their own language. To make it easier for our partners, the literacy classes are conducted by our own animators who are specially trained for this task by THP. So far THP-Benin has trained over 300 animators and produced some 13,000 literate men and women in the nine epicenters.

A woman participating in a Vision, Commitment and Action Workshop.

Health and Hygiene

In each epicenter there is a health center designed to improve health and nutritional conditions in all our partner villages. The clinics in these epicenters provide vaccinations for children and provide primary health care for women. The local governments in partnership with our rural partners also fund the creation of latrines and dig wells for safe drinking water. In collaboration with THP, the Health Ministry, as an expression of the government’s partnership, supplies a minimum of two trained heath officers to each epicenter who are available to the population.

HIV/AIDS Program

Last year, THP-Benin launched a program for the Prevention of the Spread of HIV/AIDS focused on the inequality of gender and the prevention of HIV/AIDS. There are some 200 specialized animators trained and working with our rural partners. This program aims particularly at creating the awareness that gender inequality is one of the root causes for the spread of AIDS and that if men can take responsibility in this matter and commit themselves to safe sex, the spread of AIDS could be dramatically reduced.

A woman at Abomey Epicenter speaks to other villagers.