Dec 29, 20212 min read

PROJECT - Work Training Center for deaf children

In the north of Benin, at an Institute for deaf children run by the Sisters of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of San Filippo Smaldone, a multifunctional building structure was built for the professional training of over 100 children, many with hearing difficulties, who are abandoned by families in this Institute. These children obtain basic schooling at the Institute, but are nevertheless destined for marginalization in a country that does not provide social or health assistance. The aim of the project is to create a Work Training Center where these children can learn a trade, thus provide for their livelihood and even represent a source of income. At this point, families would be willing to take them back home, in the communities to which they belong, and this would radically change their outlook on life and their future.

General objective

Create work skills on children so that they can learn a trade compatible with their deafness and can live by working with decorum and dignity.

Project actors

Smom odv and Salesian Sisters of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of San Filippo Smaldone

Specific Objectives

Purchase the equipment necessary to carry out the courses.

Train sewing and cooking training courses.

Have the certificate issued at the end of the course recognized by the Beninese state.

PRESENTAZIONE DEL PROGETTO

Beneficiaries

First of all the children of the Institute, but also the many children of the district who want to learn a trade. Where it is possible to charge a small fee, it will be used for the minute sustenance of the Center

Need Analysis

Benin is a long and narrow nation where only the southern part, the one on the coast, has a minimum of organization. Everything else is left to itself. The Center is in the north-west area, and can be reached with no little difficulty, after 650 km of road leaving the city of Cotonou. The lack of modern connections meant that the whole area remained underdeveloped with severe social, health, and economic shortcomings. This is an extremely poor area with little or no infrastructure. Our Center appears to be the only one in the whole of the north and certainly one of the few in all of Benin. The work will make these children a resource, will give them back their dignity and will allow to start a micro-economy in the area.

REALIZZAZIONE DEL PROGETTO

"Coloro che sognano di giorno vedono cose che sfuggono a chi sogna soltanto la notte" E.A.Poe