ZAO is committed

Since 2020, Zao has been involved with the French association Terre & Humanisme in a social project designed to promote food autonomy in Benin. This French association is located in the Ardèche department, less than 2 hours from our premises, Terre & Humanisme was founded in 1994 by friends of Pierre Rabhi who were inspired by his vision of agroecology. Today, the association's vocation is to share, transmit and support agroecology. It aims to pass on knowledge, with the desire to accompany a change in society and agricultural practices towards an ethical alternative. In this project, Terre & Humanisme is supporting ORAD (in English, 'Rural People's Organisation for Sustainable Agriculture'), a Beninese association, to implement the project in the field.

This project, initiated in 2020, aims to train and support 10 rural women in the creation of agroecological home gardens in the Djougou region of Benin. The aim is to guide them towards food autonomy by helping each of them to set up and run a 36 m² vegetable garden while planting trees to participate in the reforestation of this region. The aim of ORAD and Terre & Humanisme is to show that with little means, women can use available resources to create wealth, eat well and participate in the preservation of the environment.

On the basis of 7 days of thematic training and material resources, these 10 women were able to achieve the association's objectives in one year. The success of this project has made it possible to initiate a new, larger-scale mission for 2021–2022. Indeed, the inhabitants of the different villages of the women involved in the first project showed great curiosity throughout the mission, which led to the setting up of a new project.

The aim of this new project is to train 40 new women by supporting them in setting up their micro-farms, and then to include the first 10 women trained in the launch of a collective nursery and processing of cassava into gari (cassava semolina obtained by fermentation). For these two complementary activities, Zao is committed to supporting the project financially for the second consecutive year. And if our turnover allows us to make this donation, it is thanks to your faithful support in your favourite point of sale or on the e-shop. And we thank you for that!

We warmly thank our contacts, Virginie, Emmanuelle and Omer, for the valuable information they are sending us. We are grateful for the time they give us that allows us to remotely follow the implementation of this wonderful project. Well done to all these women and men who are committed to a sustainable world!

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