THEME: WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT
Soroptimist Club of Cotonou Doyen, Bénin
This project has provided three groups of women with high-performance equipment and work tools to enable girls who are used as labourers to go to school, earn more income and be able to contribute substantially to household expenses and feed their families. Indeed, the village of Kotokpa is strongly affected by a low school enrolment rate for children in general and in particular for girls who derive their income mainly from manual processing of agricultural products (palm nut, soy, peanut, etc.) and small businesses.
In a concrete way, the handing over of the materials which was first done to two groupings was possible thanks to several actions:
- get closer to women and understand their way of living and way of working,
- identify their real needs together with the NGO Berceau d’Afrique that has been working in the region for a while,
- design the project and submit it to the Roswitha Ott Fund who has responded favourably,
- carry out the various orders for processing equipment and machinery,
- organize the official delivery of materials.
Thanks to the equipment offered by our club (oil press, drums, pots, pans, etc.), the Soroptimists have observed the following results, among others:
- women no longer need their daughters as labourers so are now able to send them to school,
- the increase in their income and their ability to make a substantial contribution to meeting the needs of their families,
- women earn more time than they spend on other activities.
The global movement for equality between girls and boys must continue and become a top priority so that girls can enjoy the same rights and opportunities as boys, as stated in the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5.
The girls celebrating after being donated materials.