Benin
A small country in West Africa, Benin borders Togo, Nigeria, Niger and Burkina Faso, and has a coastline to the south.
Very involved in Sourires d'Enfants projects in Vietnam and Laos, Christian Thivillon, Vice-Chairman and member of our Board for 15 years, took part in two missions to Benin, in 2015 and 2018, as a volunteer of the Lumières partagées association, during which he contributed to the electrification of several public buildings (schools, dispensaries, etc.) in villages in the Commune of Boukoumbé in Benin.. His keen eye, his knowledge of Sourires d'Enfants projects and his knowledge of Benin enabled him to carry out a feasibility mission in 2018 for the development of new actions by SDE, thousands of kilometres away from our other projects, but with the same objective of helping children and offering them better access to education, hygiene and balanced nutrition.
Like Laos, Benin is one of the world’s Least Developed Countries, with a very high level of poverty. Just a few kilometres from the border with Togo, the commune of Boukoumbé is located in the north-west of Benin in the Atacora department. The commune comprises 71 villages, with a population of over 90,000 living in extreme poverty, with many children, particularly girls, dropping out of school.
We do not have a salaried team in Benin because we work in direct partnership with a local association under Beninese law, Les Mille Lucioles, set up in 2002 and chaired by Augustin Opossi. Les Mille Lucioles has the same objectives as Sourires d'Enfants: to provide lasting help to disadvantaged children in the fields of education, health and hygiene. We share our workforce and develop all our projects together.
Benin
Help with food insecurity in the villages of Boukoumbé
Our local partner, the Beninese association, Les 1000 Lucioles, launched a sponsorship programme in 2008 which has already enabled more than 120 schoolchildren and students to attend school in good conditions!
In 2023, we installed our first two solar lighting systems in primary schools in the villages of Kouwonatougu and Koutcogou. In 2024, we continued the installation programme in the schools of Manaré, Korontiere and Koukpakamagou.
This is the first essential step towards enabling children to go to school and receive an education!
