Working Toward Resilience in West Africa
AVENIR, a two-year project funded by the European Commission through its EU Aid Volunteers facility, has allowed France Volontaires and partners in Togo, Guinea and Senegal to deploy about 30 couples of volunteers (each made of 1 international and 1 national volunteer). In these three countries, France Volontaires has coordinated about 20 local CSOs hosting volunteers and helped them to implement activities related to food security, health and nutrition, land reclamation, anti-erosion interventions, protection of the environment, etc. AVENIR, in French stands for “Action of European and National Volunteers Working Toward Resilience.”
In addition, the AVENIR project links national resilience policies in West Africa with volunteering. During the two years, studies and capitalization have been conducted to illustrate the added-value of volunteering in mitigating, preparing, and responding to humanitarian crises and hence influencing local decision makers.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the project, and together, volunteers, partner CSOs, France Volontaires, and donors have reshaped activities to actively address new urgent needs. Deployed volunteers have organized awareness campaigns using all types of media (wall painting, radio, TV broadcasts, street communication, etc.) and targeted particularly vulnerable groups (townships, isolated neighborhoods, homeless children) to promote good hygiene practices and spread simple but robust information on protection measures.
In Togo, training sessions with a variety of CSOs targeted all types of volunteers and public servants to reinforce the use of modern project management tools (mapping, communication, social media, mentoring). With Hälsa International, volunteers served children of vulnerable communities to ensure diffusion of adapted prevention messages. With CAFE, volunteers served women living in vulnerable communities to ensure diffusion of adapted and specific prevention messages. With GRET, volunteers addressed the problems of long term solid waste management in dense human environments trying to mitigate the occurrence of future threats to public health.
In Senegal, France Volontaires worked closely with other humanitarian actors to contribute to various types of awareness and protection measures in the Keur Massar district. The volunteers also coordinated activities with the Ministry of Health. A campaign increased the number of blood donors and hence the replenishment of local blood banks. Hygiene kits have also been donated to vulnerable households. These activities serve to promote volunteering in France Volontaires’s advocacy towards local decision makers.
In Guinea, France Volontaires and partners have mobilized volunteers to reach 1,000 households in 7 districts in Kankan with awareness campaigns at local market places and hygiene kits distributions to vulnerable households. Surveillance committees have been set up thanks to local volunteers. With the AJP, volunteers have particularly targeted workers as the main users of public transportation and hence particularly exposed to contamination. Again, mass media such as radio broadcasts efficiently spread simple but robust information on good practices and protection.
The COVID-19 crisis, despite all the negative consequences, has been an interesting context for volunteers interested in the preparation, mitigation, and response to humanitarian crisis, creating a spontaneous and unexpected case-study. This has not only sustainably impacted their future careers but also has allowed them to be part of the design of an emergency response to a rapid onset crisis in rapidly delivering aid to the most vulnerable persons.
For more information, visit https://www.france-volontaires.org/nos-actions/avenir/ or https://www.france-volontaires.org/?s=Projet+AVENIR or watch https://fb.watch/1OrV4bAHaM/
