Literacy Program in Benin Integral to THP Success

Report by Pascal Djohossou, Country Director of The Hunger Project

Literacy: a valuable tool in THP’s partnership with epicenter population

Literacy holds a very important place in THP-Benin: it influences every stage of the partnership with the population and acts as a powerful tool to strengthen self-development by the villagers and to facilitate the expansion of THP-Benin village animator’s actions. Literacy also contributes to changes in gender relations and women’s leadership, as well as facilitating communications between village partners and the THP-Benin office.  For these reasons, the training of literacy trainers is a priority aspect of THP-Benin's programs.

In Benin, literacy classes are taught in seven different local dialects.  Starting in 1998, THP-Benin began to provide literacy training and produced and printed teaching materials in the local Aizo language.  This had never been done before by any organization or by the government.  THP also began a monthly newspaper written in Aizo, which is still being published.

At Adohoun, 56 trainers in literacy completed their training and are ready to train others.

• Literacy provides the skills required for book-keeping pertaining to the conduct of income-generating activities. It enables the villagers to take advantage of useful information (meeting reports, proverbs, tales) and share this information among speakers of the same language, via mailed correspondence or newspapers.

• Literacy allows for more effective management of micro-credit loans.

In addition to the fact that literacy training prepares for self-development, THP-Benin identifies, in consultation with village development groups, those literate villagers who could act as animators.

Students from Athieme village hear results of their first series of literacy classes.

The main criteria for the selection of animators are the following:

• Literacy in the local language and facility with French in order to produce progress reports and to serve, as needed, as a relay between THP-Benin and the population of the partner villages;

• Good moral character and nomination or mandate given by the grassroots community;

• Willingness to work on a voluntary, unremunerated basis. The animators thus enjoy no particular privilege which might create a barrier between them and the other villagers. They remain in the village and continue, with their development group, to carry out agricultural activities with the support of THP-Benin in the form of credit, training or other inputs.

As soon as the prospective animators have been nominated, they are trained by THP in village project animation and monitoring techniques. They are also, more importantly, taught how to acquire ownership of and disseminate the philosophy and types of actions of THP-Benin with a view to gradually expanding the partners’ group and therefore the areas covered.

Women’s leadership

After acquiring literacy skills, women become effectively involved in the operations of the epicentre coordination committees and actively participate in the decision-making process.

This student from Athieme village was given a "prize of encouragement" for her progress in becoming literate..

The women are increasingly taking an active role in the literacy training program as teachers. This is a trend which the Hunger Project-Benin is monitoring and supporting.

Some of the women show extraordinary determination, as did Emilienne Hounkanrin, a woman from the village of Atchannou (Kpinnou Epicentre) who, when literacy training was initiated in the area, walked a distance of four kilometres from her village to teach a literacy class.

Emilienne Hounkanrin, who walks long distances to teach literacy classes.

Images from Training of Trainers Programs in Four Areas

Two literacy trainers at Ekpé receive teaching materials from Anges Gbaguidi of THP-Benin.

Atchannou training of trainers program graduation photo.

Adohoun village chief addresses the new literacy trainers.

Boxes of chalk and a teaching guide are given to the literacy trainers for use with their classes.

Literacy trainers from Dedekpoe at a Training of Trainers.

Evaluation of the Wawata literacy trainers.

Statistical data on literacy training at THP-Benin

PROGRESS IN LITERACY IN THE 68 VILLAGES CONCERNED
Epicentres	Year	Number of villages	Instructors trained			Literacy graduates			REMARKS
			Women	Men	Total	Women	Men	Total
WAWATA	1999 à 2001	15	8	38	46	1047	1807	2584	Advanced level (post-literacy)
KPINNOU	2000	7	8	8	16	148	207	355	Advanced level (post-literacy)
	2001	39	17	85	102	1267	1191	2458	of which 377 at advanced level (post-literacy)
EKPE	2001	6	8	2	10	156	54	210	Advanced level (post-literacy)
AYI-GUINNOU	2001	1	1	0	1	38	2	40	1st level
TOTALS		68	42	133	175	2656	3261	5917

 

OVERVIEW OF LITERACY ACTIVITIES IN THE 68 VILLAGES CONCERNED (all levels) AS OF 31/12/01
Epicentres	Total number of villages receiving literacy training	Total number of instructors trained			Total number of literacy programme graduates
		Women	Men	Total	Women	Men	Total
Wawata	15	8	38	46	1 047	1 807	2 854
Kpinnou	46	25	93	118	1 415	1 398	2 813
Ekpè	6	8	2	10	156	54	210
Ayi-Guinnou	1	1	0	1	38	2	40
TOTAL	68	42	133	175	2 656	3 261	5 917

Implementation process

Literacy is granted very high priority in the general action plan adopted by THP-Benin for the partners.

It comes immediately after:

• Preliminary awareness-raising which establishes contact between THP-Benin and the partners, and

• The VCA workshop which, beyond the light it sheds for the partners on The Hunger Project philosophy and methodology, also brings about a change in attitude for these partners and calls forth a group of leaders.

Literacy training activities begin with the creation of development groups of like-minded people interested in implementing common projects. These groups select amongst themselves a group member who can make himself/herself available and who is willing to attend a "training the trainers" course and to bring back to the other group members the knowledge acquired during such training.

Therefore, there are as many literacy classes as there are development groups. For considerations pertaining to the quality of teaching, the size of each class is a maximum of 30 students.

The literacy program is structured in two skill levels: the initial literacy training phase (learning how to read and write) extending over 6 months and the post-literacy phase (intensive practice of the language) extending over one year.

Future Outlook

Literacy activities have a tangible, undeniable impact on the implementation of THP-Benin action plan in collaboration with the partner populations. However, the post-literacy phase, which is a pre-requisite to sustain the impact, demands substantial inputs and requires follow-on activities for at least one year.

THP-Benin cannot by itself conduct post-literacy training activities as they should be conducted and simultaneously continue to open new classes in other areas. Therefore, THP-Benin intends to forge partnerships with others institutions to synergize its work with like-minded organizations.

Contacts have been made with the Directorate of Literacy and Adult Education (a state entity under the Ministry of Culture and Crafts) and with the Unit to support Literacy Activities (an entity funded by the Swiss Cooperation Agency). In all likelihood, a truly operational partnership with these two entities may be expected as of the first quarter 2002.