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Benin

Relevant background information

In the 1990s Child-to-Child activities were activated in collaboration with l’Enfant pour l’Enfant (EPE) in Paris and their material used as resources. Since 1989 the NGO Survie de la Mère et de l’Enfant has been active and Child-to-Child activities have also been undertaken by the Union Associative des Eglises Evangeliques pour la Promotion Sociale (UAEEPS) recently replaced by a new body (Organisation pour le Développement des Collines). Both the old and the new organisation are supporters of EPE though currently (2004-2005) conditions in schools are difficult.

Survie de la Mère et de l’Enfant

This is a small programme involving about 200 children. Their main focus is health, specifically AIDS and Malaria, sanitation and environment and child rights. Their main activities are drama, a library, holiday camps and radio programmes. They are hoping to extend the programme and possibly link with Child-to-Child programmes in countries in the North. Read more

Note

Action against Malaria

A contact from UAEEPS wrote recently describing the programmes prior to 2003, since when civil unrest has curtailed their work:

“We actually found that in the schools where we started EPE activities the interest, especially in using mosquito nets, and cleaning up the locale was very high. We were using modules used by an American organisation MCDI* (see below) that used the GRAAP** (see below) methodology to teach different health topics. They have developed modules for malaria, nutrition, AIDS, hygiene and sanitation and diarrhoea. We liked some aspects of the methodology but found that with regard to input it was a bit expensive (each school needed to have their own cloth and set of designs for the teaching part of the module). The teachers who used the methodology were able to easily facilitate the discussions after they were given an initial one week training”.

Date: 2005

Source: E-mail from Christine Deweiler - lindnet5@netzero.com
This is also reported on the Mennonite Missions network

* Medical Care Development International is a group based in Maine USA with strong links both to NGOs and USAID. They in turn derive many of the principles of their health education approaches from the Canadian International Development and Research Centre who publish a document Children as Agents of Change: the Child-to-Child approach ( info@idrc.ca ) which derives from and refers readers directly to materials published by the Child-to-Child Trust.

** GRAAP is an informal education method based on Freireian Principles and used mainly for adult education work. It employs the flannel-board widely to raise awareness and promote discussion on planning action and has a good deal in common with the Child-to-Child ‘step approach’. It originated in Burkina Faso where training has been provided at the Centre d’Études Économique et Sociales d’Afrique Occidentale.