A little flashback, to the beginning of this adventure! On June 6, 2023, we sent our application file to Libre Belgique in order to participate in the 2024 edition of “Move With Africa”. A few days later, we received confirmation of our participation in collaboration with the NGO Défi Belgique Afrique! The project was becoming reality!
At the beginning of September, we therefore embarked on a quest: to find motivated, dynamic and curious young people to build our team.
Our research began with explanations about the project in the 6th and 7th professional classes of our school. At this stage, we already perceived an underlying desire, questioning and interest in the eyes of some… Questionnaires and cover letters allowed us to see things more clearly and to finally create our group… and what a group!
6 future family helpers, 2 nursing assistants, 2 carpenters and 4 electricians now make up our team. A diverse, unique team, whose mission will be, among other things, to represent our school in Belgium, and ultimately in Benin.
Let us add to this three teachers from different backgrounds: Florence, the dean, professor of care, Jonathan, of carpentry and Julie of French and history/geography. A multidisciplinary and complementary team shall we say…
This first step already seems far away as we have already come a long way since then! We noted with great pleasure that the group bonded and got closer throughout the course. The Wednesday afternoons and the two weekends of training with DBA and Aïcha, the various lucrative activities, allowed the members of the group to create stronger links and to be more and more accomplices. These moments, through the implementation of concrete, meaningful activities, made it possible to promote team spirit but also to reward certain personal initiatives. Smiles, laughter, giggles, reflections, questioning, concentration, introspection, are all characteristics of these times of sharing, which seem essential to us for the success of the project.
In recent weeks, our motivation and our curiosity have sharpened even more and our impatience has also grown… moments of stress and doubt have punctuated everything!
Now it’s time for the big departure, to join Aïcha and our correspondents. We are already so proud of the progress our young people have made! This immersion stay will truly represent the realization of our project. We want our young people to be able to exchange as much as possible with young Beninese people… that together, they can create links, build bridges between our two countries, our cultures…
More when we return!
