Last April when we were for our first time in Benin, people in Massi asked us, if we could help them – besides supporting their primary school – with micro loans. Our plan was to connect them with ADRIA in Aledjo. ADRIA was founded in 1995 and they have been – without any help from government and politics – quiet successful.
Meanwhile Salifou went to Massi to set the ground, followed by Mme. Abiba, Director of ADRIA, who explained to the farmers and the teachers how micro loans are functioning and how it will work out for them. Knowing all this I was very much depressed when we arrived last week in Massi. I’ve never looked in such sad, almost dead eyes than during our meeting there. People, especially women seemed to be hopeless … They hadn’t done anything for our meeting, they just expected help and money. They were too tired for anything …
In endless discussions we explained again and again why they need to do something before achieving the loans. They needed to form groups with same interests, they needed to elect some people for taking over responsibility, they needed to look for somebody who is capable in speaking french to communicate with ADRIA …
Mme. Abiba explained them in a very impressive way that micro loans aren’t presents … they need to get paid back in order to achieve progress. After more than 3 hours we finally had our success story: a group was founded, their interest maize. 7 farmers described their needs, gave us their ideas how they will spend the money – and even more important – how they will pay the money back … This was our breakthrough. With this case all of a sudden all the others understood what to do … and they started to work on it.
In 3-4 weeks Mme. Abiba will go back to Massi, check out the groups and their plans and then the new ADRIA branch will start its work …
… with the money of our donors.
