Benin - Support for those who are most in need.

The association "Benin Friends" was founded by Father Gildas Cambia to offer a better future to the people from the rural villages in Atacora, who are living in extreme poverty. They support families in very precarious situations, far below the poverty line. Many of the children do not even have the opportunity to go to school.  Some are true orphans, others have been abandoned by their families because of traditional rituals (animism). They all receive their special attention.

In 2014, a shelter for these children was created in Tepenge by the Father Yantoukoua N'Tia Sanni Servais to provide a safe environment for these abandoned children to go to school. Today, the centre is home to more than 45 boys aged between 5 and 15. And it is open to illiterate young girls who are no longer in school, to learn to sew in the sewing workshop (established in 2020). With the initial contributions, they have supported the purchase of beds & mosquito nets, school supplies and uniforms, sustainable agriculture (equipment, fencing of the vegetable garden) and gender equality by starting a literacy course for the girls.

In addition to the original aim of the association, which is to support the Tepente shelter, they also want to provide support in the areas of water supply and medical care.  Water scarcity is a major problem in Benin in general and in the village of Boukombé in particular. On the one hand, there is the water supply, to which not everyone has access. On the other hand, there is the problem of commercialisation of the available water towers, which exclude some residential areas.