October 2011
- Featured photos were taken during the donation of school supplies, uniforms and tuitions to some needy children at C PAAC ZOU on the 13 th of Sepetember 2011.
Some of the children continue to expect help to pay their tuitions especially the one who are at the secondary schools. Some continue to expect breakfast money, some continue to
believe that they will be kept in the orphanage after graduation and some continue and are dreaming of their
future.
Educate The Children is one of several contributors from the USA, UK,
Israel, Italy, France and, Australia. The project in Benin is led by
Janvier Adigninou Houlonon, Director of the children program of the C PAAC
ZOU, a charitable organization at Vedji in Benin Dassa - Zoume.
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26Nov2008 - Katarine Deeks, an angel disguised as a London elementary teacher arrived in Dassa out of the blue, has contributed some needed furniture, has established good connections with others involved with the orphanage effort and with the local schools, has given us good assessments of what is needed educationally, socially, and day to day, is augmenting each evening the school program for the kids, and has succeeded in initiating links with Rotarians there after over a year of our trying to do so. I said in a note to her that we may think of her as a Mary Poppins who suddenly appears to help with wondrous results, then fades away just when it appears that she is part of the landscape. All involved will be sorry to see her go and will be in her debt for her yeoman (yeoperson?) efforts there.
It appears to me that the local organization is much more than just Janvier, that the local board is involved, and that Janvier is the "front man" and energy while others do provide some stability to the operation which wasn't apparent to us. According to Katarine, the stability is provided by cossi elie ZOMAHOUN, vitoregloria02@yahoo.fr, known as Elie, apparently the "brains of the outfit" and the one who follows through. Others are also closely involved. We did not perceive this at all and, if correct, this is consoling. Janvier is frequently away conducting tours and does not live local to the orphanage, so to know of Elie is quite valuable, I think, and he is available by email. But, he does not speak English, so I am conscripting John Zimnie, a tennis buddy who is a retired high school French teacher who is spending his spare time teaching English to Hispanics at a mission in the inner city of Chicago. I'll have John either translate or edit for us.
Last week Katarine rode on the back of a motorscooter 90 km to Cotonou with Janvier for a Rotary meeting, where they presented a picture of the work and made a request for Rotary involvement. (There are photos among the 46 Janvier sent. The link to a Picasa slide show is a keeper, but I plan to cull this collection down to a few.) This was apparently a bi-weekly meeting. A couple of days later two Rotarians from the Abomey club , where Janvier lives but still some distance from Dassa, the village where the kids live, actually visited the orphanage complex, took notes, and surprised the locals by asking for a 5 year proposal. Katarine and Elie quickly developed a program which appears to cover all needs, grows the program slowly, and requires between about $6,500 up to $11,500 per year for a total of about $43,000 for the five years.
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