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.

Bye Bye Cote d'Ivoire...

Back from Assinie and last few days in Abidjan. My adventure has come to an end and what an adventure I had. My eyes have had its best meal yet. The medical campaign was a success. The villagers came and the doctors did their job. I helped in the pharmacy department of the hospital and Yolande made sure that everything went according to plan with the president of the campaign. Assinie is a beautiful little town by the lagoon that gives access to the Ocean. It’s the little Hampton’s of the Ivory Cost. Two more days to enjoy, maybe shop, relax and visit Yoland’s family before our 26hr plain ride back home that i’m not very excited about. In the mean time, i finished TWO great books, which is rare in my case because when it comes to reading, I don’t do it often. “ City of Thieves” and “The reader.” Couldn’t leave them alone. My literate friend Margaux would be very proud of me!
I am going to miss the people that I have shared three weeks with: Lybrone; Yolande’s 8 year old brother, Yanise my two year old buddy, Nadege, Bea, Thomas, Mr kulaï who are adorable workers at the house, Dieu Donner the amazing handsome cook that can bake darn good pastries, and Yolande’s parents who have welcomed and been so generous to me. I do miss home, and can’t wait to give my Papa a kiss, but these three weeks was a dream that came true. I came, I saw but didn’t conquer… no stolen babies for me!
At least I’m coming back with a little Cote D’Ivoire, mosquito bites!

After three weeks of fighting, I am the happiest Girl in the world! The picture speaks for itself.

Cassandre

Bye bye Yacoli...hello Assinie

Last day in Yacoli, then Abidjan, and direction Assinie on Thursday the 5th.
I am being given a very a nice tour in scenery of the Cote D’Ivoire. I have seen the urban city, the forest and now the Ocean. Assinie is a small village by the Ocean. We are going there for the medical part of the organization. We're joining and collaborating with a wonderful group called the Jedas (young association of Assinie) for a sanitary campaign. These young doctors open clinics to help medicate, vaccinate and inform people about asthma, HIV and other. Yolande and I will not be nurses, giving shots or trying to pretend to be Doctors but informing people in the city about this opportunity to get tested and vaccinated. We are as I can best describe it “the main attraction”, two white girls distributing flyers! Even though Yolande isn’t white, we have been told that we were both white.

My last few days at Yacoli were educational. On Saturday, I visited a plantation of Hevea trees, which is one of the main agriculture production other then cacao and rice. The tree sap is the main component of Latex. We visited the factory where they transformed the harden tree sap into raw latex with the purpose to build Michelin tires. I tell you, the smells were very pungent! Sunday we visited the Nawa water falls of Soubre (big town 20 mins from Yacoli.) Spectacular! The energy of the falls was breathtaking. We walked through the forest to get to them, which made the anticipation more exciting. There was also great progress with Yolande’s budgeting and financing meetings with the young men of the village. Thanks to her determination, we were able to discuss their money management despite our rough start.

The end of my journey of teaching was a one of a kind experience. The schedule was not bad either. No school Wednesdays and the hours, 8am to 11:30, lunch till 2:30 and we ended at 5pm. I know! Would I do it again? Yes, if the conditions were different. I was disappointed at myself that I couldn’t enjoy the children as much as I wanted too and give them the full attention they needed. The fact that they were 30 with a short attention span, who hit each other every minute, was at the end very challenging and frustrating to maintain calm. It wasn’t easy. What the school needs is a concrete wall to separate the younger children and the older one. Two classes of 18 children at the most, so that the teacher can give them what they need, where they can learn correctly and where the violence (hitting) can be controlled. It isn’t fair to them nor is to the teachers who tend to loose patience with the chaos.
However, they are my little Angels when they sing!
Here’s a sing a long:

“ Les Dolphins HEH! Les Dolphins HEH! Secom coma Whoa! Secom coma Whoa!”

-- CASSANDRE

School is starting...

Thursday the 29th was the preschool children and my very own first day of school. I don’t know why the younger children start so late because the 1st to 5th graders have been in school for two months now, but anyways they were very surprised to see me. I'll begin with the school, it is one long big room with no closed doors or windows, but a roof there is. It’s been in this condition for two years. You can imagine how difficult it can get, especially when all the older children from the other schools who have never seen a white girl can distract the classroom. They pop their heads, laugh, cross the classroom, and get in and out of it. A little frustrating, because of the disrespect and distraction it can cause, but I can understand their interest. Not necessarily because of my color but for the reason why I am here.

Anyways to continue with the preschool classroom, it doesn’t have much other than a small round table, mini desks and chairs (adorable by the way), a small chalkboard and a mat for the children for circle time. The assistants made wonderful decorations, which brings life to the dark cold room. There are two assistants, and no permanent teacher for about 30 children. The teacher who hasn’t arrived yet, stays for a short period of time until the next rotation. I was told that since the school is about only two years, the educational board waits until the third year before they send a full time teacher. They want to make sure that there is a solid demand in the village; Not very assuring if you ask me. I forgot to mention the restroom situation which in my society would be considered shocking, but to for them, it works. The children must do their business outside in the bushes. As for the boys, lucky them, they have a concrete structure on the floor with a hole to go number #1. Hey, at least they learn quickly how to aim a target. It isn’t as bad as it seems and yes they wash their hands. My lovely students, have big eyes for me. Let’s just say they listen during singing, dancing and snack time. Other than that you can imagine what 30 children can be like. First day though!

For being someone who doesn’t like attention, I came to the wrong place. Whenever I step outside the house, it takes only 1 child to attract an other and by the time you know it, I have 20 children behind me following every step I make.

-- CASSANDRE

Yacoli...here we are!

Last Tuesday, we traveled to Yacoli the village that inspired and gave the organization its name. We are spending a week here. I will be teaching and Yolande will be organizing budgeting seminars, computer workshops, talking to villagers, and working hard to develop and help improve the villager’s life style. Coming here was a bumpy adventure. The village is 4hours away from Abidjan. We travailed by car with a driver, a bodyguard actually a soldier accompanied by his Ak 47. He made our travels faster and avoided us to get pulled over each time we went above the speeding limit. The ride was as I said bumpy because of the big potholes in the middle of the narrow road. I was amazed to see how fast we were going on these small roads with both sides of traffic, little rain here and there and people riding their bikes or walking on each side of the road. We made it and I didn’t fall asleep, which is surprising because car rides and watching movies on the couch are sleepy times for me. The scenery was so beautiful. Ugh! We were in the middle of a tropical forest everything is green, spacious so many things caught my eyes. Especially, the small towns and their houses, the markets, the villagers, clothing and all the colors of those combined. I love to see the woman carrying food, laundry or wood on their heads with the baby wrapped behind them and their little heads-popping out. Before leaving, I promised myself that I am going to learn how to wrap the baby behind me.

The best part of the day was the traditional welcome we got by the chief and important people of the village. They welcomed us by singing and dancing and yes guess who had to dance! Yep, I had to celebrate too and they brought me to the circle. Apparently, they’re going to know me as the white girl who can dance like an African woman and the girl who wants to steel their baby’s hahah! (They don’t know that yet though) Anyways they were impressed by my moves and Yolande’s going to You Tube it to share with you all. What a marvelous day!

-- CASSANDRE

First Days in Cote d'Ivoire

After 26 hours of traveling; Los Angeles - Dubai, Dubai - Abidjan we finally arrived to our anticipated designation, ton- ton- ton ABIDJAN. Today October 24th, second day of our adventure, I am very pleased to be here even in the humidity and heat that is my enemy for having the skin of snow white. My heart has mixed messages of the city. The City itself is yes, unfortunately in need of reconstruction, financing, cleaning and poverty which being its main aggressor, but hidden in the City are a group of educated fighters (and I don’t mean that violently) who fight with love and compassion for the development of their city and country. These men and woman that I had the chance to see express there realistic engagement at a conference called “African forum economic” discussing as the title in tales, the economy of Africa and what must be done to improve it. Even though the topics and discussions were a little too hard for me to understand because of the economic language they sang to me. The quality of their French was so distinguished and refined, it sounded like a lullaby. The reason for my sensibility of the city is the large gap between what you see and what you don’t see between the poverty and groups of inspirational leaders who are working so hard to get them out of this negative perception. Yes, they still have a long way to go but people should celebrate and reinforce their actions.

In two days I have made a wonderful friend, Yanise of age one, have blushed too many times from many smiles of an adorable boy Librone missing a front tooth, have fallen in love with a home made chocolate cake, have eaten and is living like a queen, is humored by a man that carries three cell phones and a phonebook that shall not be named, is in need of a Boubou and last but not least, has had a slap in the face more than a reality check on how uncultivated I am about the world and will start interesting myself by finally reading the paper. Abidjan I like you!

-- CASSANDRE

New web address: WWW.YACOLI.ORG

As you know, we are changing our name from Yakoly.org to Yacoli.Org in order to accurately reflect the name of the village that inspired us! Our web address is now www.yacoli.org!

New Online Store!!

We just announced our first online store where the proceeds of all items will be for the benefit of the villages! You can go on http://www.cafepress.com/yacoli to browse and purchase some of the products. Here is the new logo we decided to use:



In effort to bring more native or local arts from the Ivory Coast to the forefront, we will seek unusual articles to add to the store. Of course all benefits will go toward the development programs.

Yacoli Pre School

I was cleaning my computer files and found an old video of us and Santa in the village of Yacolidabouo during the 2007 Christmas holiday! I know this video is on our youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/YakolyOrg

But here is a quick look at what we have:

New Logo

Testing a new logo. How does it look?

Yakoly.Org v Yacoli.Org

There has been some confusion about the name of our organization. Not good! But there is an explanation. They are essentially the same organization, however:

Yakoly.Org is incorporated in England
Yacoli.Org is incorporated in the United States

For tax filing purposes, we needed to create another name so that donations are kept separate and each country Tax office is happy. As we expand to other countries, we will use an easier format such as ''Yacoli-'country name'.org''. For instance in France, we will be known as Yacoli-France.Org.

Internal Revenue Service

We heard this morning from the Internal Revenue Service that our organization is now IRS approved! It means that we are now recognized at the federal level as a good standing non profit organization. It also means that we can raise funds on US territory and donations are tax deductible!

Again, we want to thank everyone who supported us since 2007 and continue to support us!

Volunteers

We are so happy to have two volunteers, Cassandre and Scott, joining us for our second mission to the Ivory Coast! In keeping with our mission to provide financial, intellectual and material assistance to innovative villages we are traveling with two bright, dynamic and young educators.

Cassandre is a kindergarten teacher at the Lycee Francais de Los Angeles and Scott is a Biology teacher for grades 9-12. He also designs and implements a variety of classroom management strategies to maintain a high level of student engagement.

In addition, we have two program directors in the Ivory Coast. Mrs. Jeannette Allelet who is an educator and recently completed her degree for teaching mentally challenged students. Mr. Daniel Kodia a doctor who designed prevention health clinics for his village of Assinie.

Now that our team is growing and a date for our second mission is set, we are focusing on gathering as much supplies as possible. The list of supplies can be viewed on our website www.yakoly.org

Don't hesitate to contact me (yolande@yakoly.org) if you wish to help in anyway, such as conducting a drive in your area to gather school supplies, etc.

Upcoming Mission 2009

Our first mission to the Ivory Coast in December 2007 was to introduce ourselves, identify the needs of the village of Yacolidabouo, identify similar villages, establish contacts and develop a relationship. We also addressed the following:

1.What are the aspirations of women and men in the village? Looking at local entrepreneurship, or the mirage of big cities?
2.Health prevention discussion
3.Finance discussions, including budgeting and saving in your community
4.Western countries, perception vs reality

Our second mission in November 2009, following the assessment of our 2007 mission, will focus on education for pre-school and grade school students. We will not only assist teachers in the classroom, but we will bring ideas on educational activities and interact with the children. Even if the children are attending classes, teachers often do not have the tools to properly teach, therefore, we will also seek educational tools which are listed on our website at www.yakoly.org.

The goal of the 2009 mission is to open up the children to fun education (inside and outside the classroom), provide the teachers with new teaching ideas and educational tools.

While in the Ivory Coast, we will mainly work in the villages of Yacolidabouo and Assinie.

Upcoming Travel

We are getting prepared for another trip to the Ivory Coast. This time, we have more help coming our way! We will be accompanied by two teachers and a Med student.

Plans are being laid out and I will make sure to post them!

Responsibility

I received a nice email from someone following my blog. I am so happy to know that people do follow what I have to say and care about Yakoly.Org mission as much as I do!

On this blog, I intend to share with you my experiences as Yakoly founder but also my reaction on major events affecting the continent of Africa.

My last entry was a rather harsh criticism of African leaders, but today I intend to focus on Yakoly.Org for which we now have clarified the programs which include:

Education

Provide tools for pre school and primary school teachers and students. Develop a teacher exchange program and school mentoring program.

Infrastructure

For the construction of vital infrastructures which will allow for a better environment. There are now two projects to be financed which are village street building and boarding school students housing.

Health

Assist with prevention campaigns, pharmacy supplies

Banking

Organize education campaign on banking, saving and wealth management

These four development programs are based on what locals in villages we visited in 2007/08 were looking for. The villagers are correct, a community needs these programs in order to prosper but above all they need to understand the notion of responsibility.

Any well oiled international non profit organization can go to villages in developing countries and establish such program. The level of success would be measured on how long these programs would sustain. If the answer is less than forever, than the programs are failures.

We must give the responsibility of development back to Africans by engaging them in the process, working side by side not dictating and adjusting our knowledge to the local customs and beliefs. That means when we travel to Africa to do good, we must be in total immersion within the culture, the language, the customs, etc. because our understanding of a good life standing is not the same as a villager. It would be like trying to fit a rectangle into a square, it's almost there but not quite.
I acknowledge that this is a challenging approach because it also requires deep personal changes on our part. But villagers are also doing a tremendous effort to understand our culture, our language, our customs and our beliefs. Therefore, if we want to be successful at erasing poverty we must give back the responsibility of development to Africans at the village level and immerse ourselves in the local culture while helping.

What do you think? Although I enjoyed receiving your email comments, don't be shy and be the first to comment on the Blog!