In connection with the financing of its project by the Government of Japan, a project team composed of ICA Cote D’Ivoire Mr. Kouame Konan Eugene, Country Director of ICA-CI, N’dri Accountant Fréderic, Eric Konan driver Brou Amoin Queen bilingual assistant and Hideki Kambe coordinator ICA Japan conducted a prospecting mission in the town of Brobo and its surrounding villages. The mission objectives were:
- Visiting the market garden site
- Meet authorities
- Select the schools for primary school construction project initiated by the Japanese Government.
Step 1: arrival at 16 am to Brobo, ICA-CI mission team traveled directly to Ayabo-Abouokro, a village 6 kilometres from Brobo to the school. At the scene, the team was greeted by the Director of the school, volunteer teachers, the village chief and his representatives. In the words of our interlocutors, the school at Ayabo-Abouokro was built by the initiative of the people of the two villages there 6 years ago. It has 4 classes as follows:
- ICC class with an enrollment of 52 students, including 15 girls and 37 boys.
- The class of CP2 with an enrollment of 20 students including 12 girls and 8 boys.
- The CEI-CE2 classes with an enrollment of 36 students including 13 girls and 23 boys.
- The class of CM2 with an enrollment of 36 students including 27 girls and 9 boys.
The condition of the facilities under which the students of these villages are taught are critical, in fact, the mission team noted the classrooms are built of bamboo and covered with plastic. These classrooms are rebuilt each year of the fragile building materials:
- Insufficient Number of benches and tables
- Children are forced to sit on stools without tables
- Lack of water source
- Lack office
- Lack of housing for teachers
- Lack of equipment for students
- Number of insufficient teachers
- Lack of electricity
- Children’s Exposure to lung disease from bamboo powder during dry period.
The name of the village head was given to the team, for the mission school construction project, Ayabo-Abouokro, and a written application on behalf of the two village leaders was made. This was while expressing on behalf of the population a wish to see the achievement the construction project of the school and also the realization of other projects that could benefit the village. Overview Photos were taken in addition to those made on classes.
The visit to the village of Pindikro was to see the results in terms of sustainability of the project implemented by CIA maraicher-CI in 2001-2002. To this end, the team was received by the beneficiaries of the said project. Again it was a joy for former recipients to meet again with CIA-CI after 10 years of absence. The beneficiaries have shown results in terms of sustainability and saving in the project by building houses in cement, and for the purchase of motorcycles and the acquisition of other lands.
The visit to the market garden site showed a proliferation of crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, etc … over vast tracts of land. Today vegetable growing is booming in this region of Brobo through ICA-CI.
At around 12 pm the first visit to the authorities of Brobo was performed at the royal home of the village chief, Ms. TCHIDGI MARIE So the CIA-CI delegation was received by Madam and her husband the village chief. Again it was a joy for the authorities to receive Mr Kouame and his entire delegation after 10 years of absence. After pleasantries, Mr Kouame on behalf of ICA-CI and in his own name gave two bottles of alcoholic drinks in addition to a symbolic sum of 20,000 F. The village chief expressed the need to see the school of his village, Zougban, that it be selected by the Japanese government as a primary school building program.
The second visit was carried out as a primary inspection of the city of Brobo. This visit’s aim was to conduct an inspection of the construction of the primary schools built by the Japanese Government and partly whether the selected schools are taken into account by the building codes or other programs.
During this visit, which took place at the office of the representative of the Inspector Primary and in the presence of IEP Manager, Mr Ira, the initiator of the meeting, Mr Kouame informed the mission team that this is not only schools selected by CIA-CI which are taken into account by any program, but most of the schools need to benefit from this kind of project because the need is great in this region.
Scheduled for crossbred, it is finally in the evening around 18:00 pm that the team has been received by the 3rd Deputy Mayor of the town of Brobo. It is with gratitude that the Mayor received the ICA-IC engagement team and did not fail to list the positive aspects from past projects initiated by ICA-CI in this region, because it is thanks to the presence of ICA and its projects and especially the work of crossbred culture of the maraicher tomato, that has enabled Brobo to be number one in this field in the Ivory Coast.
During the discussions, the Mayor also listed the following. On education, the school infrastructure problem facing the region of Brobo which results in insufficient classrooms for the number of students interest in their education. On poverty:
- The increase in poverty in the area of Brobo, also according to the Mayor for the fight against poverty should be:
- Technical Training maraicher
- Modernisation of the sale in the maraicher (tomatoes)
At the end of the hearing of 40 minutes granted by the Mayor, he expressed the wish that ICA-CI go ahead with projects to further assist the population.
The mission on Wednesday 18th was to visit Pindikro schools and Zougban, visit to INHP Yamoussoukro to inquire about the price of the first incubators and visit school of EPP Pindikro II located 7 kilometres from Brobo. The mission team was able to tour the premises and meet with the school principal, Mr Bertin Kouakou Yao. The characteristics of this school are:
- 5 classrooms
- Classes constructed of bamboo and mud
- Established in 2007
- There are classes CP1, CP2, CIS, CE2, CM1
- The two schools take pupils from 5 villages
- Number of classroom teachers: 5
- Number of students: 188 (CP1: 42 CP2: 36, CE2 37, CM1: 16)
- Number of inhabitants more than 4000 hts
- Failure Water Point
- Creation date 2009 people
After the village of Pindikro, the mission team visited the village of Brobo Zougban 10 km away and found:
- Lack classes
- (3 classrooms built of bamboo and mud)
- Lack of chairs and tables
- Lack of office for teachers
- Date of creation 2012
- Number of 3 existing classes (CP1, CP2, CIS)
- Number of teachers: 3 (2 holders and 1 volunteer)
The meeting in INHP, was held with the participation of teachers of the agronomy department, and students and inventors of incubators in experimental phases. For nearly an hour, the task team received information about the reasons for the initiative of this project, the cost of the incubator model as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the project.
This post was written for ICAI’s monthly bulletin the Global Buzz, December 2015.