Health Clinics – Assinie Village

In the Village of Assinie, we have a partnership with JEDAS (Youth Association for Assinie Development).
JEDAS organizes health clinics in their village every year and we welcomed the energy these young men and women invested in their community so that it may become the healthiest village in Ivory Coast. Yacoli.Org raised funds in the US to cover the cost of doctor’s hotel and food expenses as well as their stipend. We also solicitated local donation for buses and prescription drugs which helped establish a record attendance since the association was created in 2007.
JEDAS project is in correlation with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to end poverty by 2025, with a focus on objectives 4, 5 and 6, reduce children mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
The 2009 health clinics conducted the following activities:
- Education, AIDS/HIV screening and other STDs
- children’s pathologies screening such as malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition, anaemia, etc
- diabetes and hypertension screenings
- doctor’s evaluation and referrals
- prescription drug

Before our involvment, the health campaign attracted 169 patients. With our fundraising efforts in 2009, JEDAS was able to attract 346 patients. Details of the statistics can be found on our website www.yacoli.org

Women of Yacolidabouo

WOMEN
If we thought men were challenging, women were the most mysterious. A meeting with the women association of the village called OUYINE ASSOUAGNE was scheduled in the misdt of our stay. We should add that the women association include young and older women as opposed to men who segregate the elders and the young men.
The first meeting was energetic, how women are able communicate and work together. They arrived on time and in great numbers for our kick off meeting. The president was in attendance as well as the vice president, the secretary and they even thought about bringing their own translator. Not all women were fluent in French so they made sure to bring someone from the association who would handle any communication issues.
We spoke about their children and our assessment that they are not too disciplined at school, how they need to be involved in their children schooling and participate in Parent-Teacher meetings. This topic was a little challenging because we did not want to appear telling them how to raise their children, rather initiate a conversation and exchange of ideas on how to better structure children lives before and after class.
The subject of raising children is still developing and we expect to create children workshops/discussions for our next mission in 2011 with Mr. Jean Marc Bernard, Education Consultant.
Another subject discussed was women independence. The ladies shared with us that they need to find first an activity that will allow them not to rely financially on their husbands and second a way to loan each other money, in other words a microfinancing system among them.
We liked the idea which could become an amazing project to create an association, develop an activity and teach them how to manage it all. We created a partnership with MZK MANAGEMENT (MZK-MD), a reputable local organization that manages such projects pro bono.
So far, only $300 has been raised to establish the association but much more is needed in order to start their activities.

Recap on the Children of Yaclidabouo

We worked with the substitute teacher and the children of the only pre-school in the region. Substitute teachers from the village with no educational background had to fill in the gap for an assigned teacher. In the Ivory Coast, the public education system will allow a teacher to rotate to pre-schools if they have the basic environment for the children.
In Yacolidabouo, the classroom has four walls, no doors and a roof with a hole in the ground for bathroom breaks.
Not all children in the eligible age bracket attend pre-school because there is an expense that parents are not ready to take. Those who enroll their children understand the benefit of enrolling their children in the classrom early and see the benefit as the child goes further in his/her eductation.
In 2009 we raised $200 in cash and $500 worth of school supplies, soaps and toilet paper for Yacolidabouo pre-school.
We also recorded the names of all children to follow their achivement in the village school system so that parents will understand the benefit of their children attending pre-school which we hope will push them to develop a better family budget.

The Women of Yacolidabouo (Ouyine Assouagne)

During our trip in November 2009, we set up a meeting with the women association of the village which was an altogether different experience than the men. I should add that the women association include young and older women as opposed to men who segregate the elders and the young men.

At our first meeting, we could see the synergy among women, how they are able get together and work together. They arrived on time and in numbers for our kick off meeting and I have to say that they were prepared. The president was in attendance as well as the vice president, the secretary and they even thought about bringing their own translator. Not all women were fluent in French so they made sure to bring someone from the association who would handle any translation issues, the Communication Director.

We spoke about their children and our assessment that they are not too disciplined at school, how they need to be involved in their children schooling and participate in Parent-Teacher meetings. This latter topic was a little challenging because we did not want to appear telling them how to raise their children, rather initiate a conversation and exchange of ideas on how to better structure children life before and after class. The subject of raising children is still developing and we expect to create children workshops/discussions for our next mission in 2011.

After talking about their responsibility within the village, their children and their husbands, we asked what do the women of Yacolidabouo want? They spoke among themselves for about five minutes and presented a clearly and constructed idea. In the Southwest region of Cote d’ivoire and precisely the Bete region, a man marries a woman from another village NEVER from the same village or group of villages. Marriage for a woman means that she is leaving her village and is welcomed to her husbands’. The trade off in this marriage vows is that women do not own any land or property in their husband’s village; therefore, they remain completely independent from them.
In their own words, the women told us that they need to find a way to become financially independent. Rice being the main food in their diet, they realize the closest they can buy rice was 30 miles away. So they want to develop a co-op or association to purchase, sale the rice and use some of the income from the sale to lend to each other for their own small businesses. But they need our help to learn how to manage and would like no men to be involved in this project. We were curious as to why? We could not get an answer but understood that some cultural issues cannot be violated. We just have to work around them and make sure that everything that they are accustomed to remains intact.

What's next? Their wish is to start fresh, with an all women team and Yacoli.Org as the Project Manager responsible for fundraising, Angele Kouamé as the Project Manager responsible for guiding and organizing the women locally. Our Finance program fundraiser this year will focus on the women association of Yacolidabouo named: ASSOUAGNE OUYINE which means TOGETHER WE ARE IN CHARGE.

Follow up

Our trip to Cote d'Ivoire came to an end on November 14 2009.

For three weeks, we were welcomed and cared for beyond our expectations, so leaving the country was tearful for all of us. We visited Abidjan, Assinie, and Yacolidabouo. For each location, we had a different goal since the villages have different needs.

The village of Yacolidabouo was more complex because many things are happening at different levels in education, personal financing, health, infrastructure, immigration, etc. We found ourselves confronted to developed countries issues in a poor African rural environment.

In Assinie, the focus was on a sanitary campaign we financed and co hosted with the JEDAS (Youth Association for the development of the Village of Assinie), getting to know the area, the people and understanding how well they are organized.

On one hand, we came to not only bring assistance but also understand the deep issues that are scaring Africa. On the other hand, we discovered the generosity, kindness, abundance of Africans. I wish I were an excellent writer to convey how we were deeply affected by the trouble Africans are facing on the daily basis but also by the determination they have to survive and improve themselves. The problem is that they ARE NOT BEING HEARD.

Let me make clear that I am only talking about the population at large, not the head of states and governments. What is flagrant when in African and no one is actually addressing is the fact that African leaders do not care or value the life or well being of an African person. From this point on, the aspirations, goals and needs of the population are completely overlooked. They have not much room to evolve which creates the never ending circle of poverty.

Yacoli.Org search villages who take the responsibility to erase poverty by identifying, organizing and solving their own problems. Erasing poverty must be an organic process and as an international organization we help them structure and/or finance their solutions. Furthermore, we encourage and arrange for the younger population to work together, share information and ideas on how to resolve issues. Maybe one village success could be the solution for another village problem?
It is a way to guarantee that the work we are doing toward sustainable development remains for generations, especially when the solutions are driven by villagers.