Albrecht May 2009

Name: Diane Albrecht
Post: Bembereke
Contact: 96.13.18.03, sometimes 93.22.60.50
Pick-up Location: Parakou

Brief Project Description:

An Arbor Day celebration is being planned to include a parade, formation, speeches, sketches and a tree planting campaign with my environmental club at the CEG. We will march around town with signs about the value of trees for people and their environment. We will go to the mayor’s office and give a speech stating our objectives for the day, of sensibilizing the town, and then the foresters will give us an informational lesson on planting and maintaining trees. We will also perform a sketch about deforestation. From there we will go to the CEG and plant trees on the boarder of the campus. We plan on having a football match afterwards, followed by refreshments.

Date of Project: June 1, 2009
Number of People Involved: 30 female students and 30 male students will form the parade, sensibilizing 200 town residents. 2 foresters, the PCV and my female colleague are involved as well. One male student will give a speech for the mayor. 5 boys and 5 girls will perform the sketch. 20 boys and 10 girls will play football.
Budget:

Item Number Unit Price Cost
T-shirt 25 1.000 CFA 25.000 CFA
Banner 2 2.500 CFA 5.000 CFA
Drummer 2 2.500 CFA 5.000 CFA
Sandwiches 100 100 CFA 10.000 CFA
Tree saplings 50 100 CFA 5.000 CFA
Total Cost 50.000 CFA

Amount Requested: 50.000 CFA

Comments

GAD Coordinator: Sounds great. Recommend funding.
GAD Finance: Sounds like a great project! Recommend funding.
GAD Specialist: Recommend funding too.

GAD Coordinator Update: Called Diane 19/05; told her that funding was approved.

Closing Report

Brief Description of Project: I planned an International Environment Day celebration with my high school environmental club. The activities of said day included a parade around town, which stopped at the mayor’s office for speeches and was followed by planting 60 trees at the high school. (The previous week we prepared the soil and built fences to protect the trees.) After this, two local foresters gave us a formation on natural resource management, during which we prized fifteen students with trees. Next was lunch, followed by a break until the afternoon. At 15:00 a local nurse came and gave us a formation on family planning and three PCVs followed this with an HIV/AIDS focused game. The day was completed by a soccer match.

Number of People Involved and Age Range:
All Day: PCVs Diane, Tim, Jocylin, and NGO work partner

Activity Male Participants Female Participants
Parade 30 environmental club members, 75 CEG participants, 250 spectators, CEG Director, the Mayor, the First Adjoint, 2 Foresters, and 2 work partners 20 environmental club members, 75 CEG participants, 250 spectators
Tree Planting 30 club members 20 club members
Environmental Formation 20 club members, 30 CEG students 20 club members, 20 CEG students
Health Formation 25 club members, 60 CEG students 15 club members, 20 CEG students
Soccer Match 15 club members, 15 players, 20 spectators 20 spectators

Also to mention in terms of people involved is that the administrative members of the environmental club, my NGO colleagues and the foresters, as well as the CEG Surveillant and one Professor were very involved in planning and implementing the day’s activities.

What Were the Goals/Objectives of This Project? The objectives of the day were to plant 60 trees and to raise awareness on the part of the club members, CEG students and the wider community of the importance of protecting trees and the environment. (Also, to have fun and raise club membership for next year.)

Were Those Goals/Objectives Met? The trees were planted and the students were given a lesson on natural resources, which fulfilled the objectives. The parade helped to spread the word to the whole community.

What Were the Strengths of This Project? I was proud of the community contribution in terms of money raised and goods given or lent to us for the event, also, in terms of people’s time that they gave to help plan and participate in the activities. Having the foresters there to give us a formation helped ensure that the day was educational, maybe changing the way people think about their environment.

What Were the Challenges/Weaknesses of This Project? One challenge was getting people to come on time and to smoothly transition from one activity to the next. Another challenge, at least something stressful to the volunteer, was that so many details could not be secured until the last minute before the event.

Do You Consider This Project Completed? Yes

Budget:

Type Unit Cost Total Cost
50 t-shirts 1,500 75,000
Lunch for 100 500 50,000
Banner 12,000 12,000
Local Band 6,000 6,000
Signs for Parade gift 0
75 tree saplings gift 0
Total 143,000 CFA

Additional funding provided by the Mayor of Bembereke (13,000 CFA), the PCV’s host agency, APIC-ONG (50,000 CFA), and Telethon—CEG Bembereke (30,000 CFA).

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