FIELD VISIT TO GBEGBOMEY PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - A MILESTONE IN OUR MISSION.

On Monday May 26, 2025, at 10 a.m., our NGO team gathered at the Akassato crossroads for a long-awaited field mission. As agreed at the last Board meeting, we organized a visit to Gbegbomey Public Primary School to assess its real needs with a view to future support.

We started our journey towards the lakeside village of Ahomey, where we crossed the lake with our motorcycles in pirogues. Always an impressive experience, and a testament to the difficulties of access faced by these isolated communities. Arriving in Ahomey, we continued on to the village of Gbessou. This was an opportunity to revisit the Gbessou school, where our NGO recently carried out a project to provide computer kits for pupils and teachers.

After this stopover, we set off again to reach our main destination: the village of Gbegbomey. On arrival, we were warmly welcomed by the village chief. After the customary greetings and introductions, our treasurer took the floor to explain to the chief and villagers the purpose of our visit.

The village chief then accompanied us to the school, where we met the teachers, pupils and women in charge of the school canteen. After introducing ourselves to the teaching staff, we explained that we had come to find out what the school's real needs were, with a view to our organization's future involvement.

The meeting identified a number of priority needs to improve learning conditions at the school:

• A significant lack of benches to accommodate pupils;

• Renovation of one of the dilapidated school buildings;

• The absence of a drinking water supply;

• The need to fence off the school to ensure the children's safety;

• The reconstruction of a modern canteen, the current one being out of use.

Our warmest thanks go to all the team members who took part in this important visit. Their availability and commitment are essential to move our projects forward and remain true to our mission: to support the country's most remote and vulnerable schools.

This visit marks a new stage in our participative identification of needs and in the construction of concrete, appropriate solutions. A specific project to provide benches is already underway.

Together, let's continue to make a difference, one village at a time.