Lead group of woman to grown on their rural activities troth projects .
Rporter: Mr TETEYABA
There are some things that they would like to change – better food conservation, better connection with the city, better electricity supply, nevertheless, they are unwilling to use advanced technologies, especially the old people. I can give an example of the meeting in village Aklakou, where I was with my NGO AME
Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkova
We went there in order to talk about their needs, problems and about the reason why they do not use the new mill that would ameliorate their manioc fabrication. Firstly we found out that they have a problem with the fruit conservation. We got to know that during a certain period, there is a huge production of one fruit that is spoilt very quickly.
It means that villagers have to throw away a huge amount of it and later on in a period of no production of this fruit, they have nothing to eat. So they ask us to help them with the conservation. Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkova
Lack of private investment, low average income, conservative way of living with a small changes leading to improvement and lack of information for NGOs of how
to run effectively their business. Nevertheless, the NGOs have great ideas that would cause huge changes when given the proper knowledge and information. Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkovaa
High level of friendliness among religious groups – Muslim, Christians and animists live very peacefully here. The religion is very important in here as it keeps people together. I participated in the confirmation and one ceremony of the Christians and I was surprised by the fact of how many people were present and by the way of how they enjoyed the whole ceremony. They danced, sang and the whole atmosphere was just amazing and full of happiness.
High level of overall friendliness and openness to other foreigners, especially for white people. I can confirm that all the people that I have met were greatly welcoming to me.Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkova
Children work – kids (girls) normally work home during the holidays. During my stay I was served food by little girls, who are 10-15 years old. They got up for me early in the morning to prepare breakfast for me, they carried very heavy bucket so that me and another stagier could have a bath and they cleaned house on a daily basis.
Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkova
Infrastructure – There are only a few main roads, nevertheless there is no maintenance concerning the roads among the houses. The infrastructure is worst especially in the villages, where the roads are full of deep holes and crossed by the fallen trees, which makes the transportation very challenging and people need to walk long distances. The main infrastructure for the export and import is railway. Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkova
Internet – weak internet connection, which is however getting better. There is a possibility to buy a key and to put a credit on it, so that you can have an internet connection at home, nevertheless the price is very expensive for local people – 10 000 franc per month and the connection is not always great, it disconnects very often.
Reporter Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkova
Water system – I find the low development of build-in water system at homes very warning. Locals normally carry cold water in buckets and use it for both toilet and to have a bath. What is striking for me is the fact that the toilets are not built in at the university campus. In the case you are in need the toilet you need to go in the terrain, which I understand as a humiliation especially for the girls when the have their periods. I was also told that this is the cause of why the girls are less educated as they refuse to go to schools, as the consequence of this low developed sanitary system.
Reporter Ms. Kristyna Michkova
Food bought on the street is carried in plastic bags and then eaten by hands (even rice, spaghetti). I doubt a bit the hygiene with which the food is prepared and then sold on the streets. Water is also drunk from the plastic bags and I was told that sometimes the drinking water is not good. It is therefore better to buy one in the bottle, which is more expensive.
Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkova
Hygiene – bad hygiene (locals prepare food by hands in the open space with a lot of flies around, lack of disinfection use). As people are used to walk bare foot I believe that they can get infection easily when injured. Inconvenience for the girls and women in the time of their period. There is an access for the sanitary pads, but they are very expensive so the girls use the pieces of cloths that are re-used. Following picture shows the toilet place. Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkova
Huge pesticide management deficit. Farmers throw containers about on the farm which is a flood plain in a river basin. Floods carry and deposit the wastes into the water body that serves as a source of domestic water and a fishing ground, 7 villages located in a 7km stretch of land along the water body are vigorously involved in this activity.
Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkova
Pollution – huge – Home rubbish is normally thrown on the floor and then collected in a cartoon, which is therefore placed on the street. You can see the thrown plastic bags everywhere and it is very normal for locals to throw everything on the floor. I remembered once we were driving a car and I finished my water from the plastic bag and the driver opened the window telling me to throw it away. The difficult thing about this would be to change the people’s habits and to acknowledge them about more environmental friendly behavior. Apart from this there is huge air pollution as a consequence of used vehicles (mainly motorbikes) and as a consequence of manufactories.
Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkova
Business – lack of private companies, low private investment and lack of job opportunities for young people. Due
to the lack of private investment the start-up of a small business is very difficult for locals. There is a huge gap between rich and poor people! There are a few rich here,
but a lot of poor ones who live in terrible conditions. I worked in Togo for two local NGOs – Afrikimpact and Amis Du Monde Entier – and I need to acknowledge that those
organizations have great ideas and visions that would definitely leave a huge impact on Africa and its young generation, nevertheless, I found out some issues that should be tackled.
Apart from the fact that NGOs and enterprises lack the start-up capital and the overall financial investment, I noticed that there is also the problem with the companies’ visibility on the Social Media.
In my opinion this is caused by two reasons – by the bad internet connection (which is really slow and it drops all the time) and by the low level of IT education in a way that not many young people know how
to use social media to promote their company. Therefore, keeping in pace with West can be a bit challenging and it also affects the partnership makings in Europe, because as the African companies are not visible,
no one will contact them. To finalize, I propose to ameliorate the internet connection in Africa, so that they can keep in pace with the rest of the world. Likewise, I understand that the organizations should be better connected with the European organizations in order to share and exchange the knowledge and skills. Here, I should stress that I am not talking only about the exchange from North to South, but also from South to North as Europe has also a lot to learn from Africa. Why is this Europe-Africa connection important? In my opinion, better connection leads to creation of mutual trust and therefore to investment and B2B making. This would probably help African countries out of the aid trap they are in.”
Reporter: Ms. Kristyna Michkova