30-09-2024 | di COOPI

COOPI and the EU BEKOU fund to support small local organisations

Between July and September 2024, the ‘BEKOU JEUNESSE - espoir de la Centrafrique’ project launched an activity called ‘local partnerships’ in the city of Bangui and in the provinces covered by the project in Central African Republic.

This activity consisted of supporting small local organisations in managing the activities they proposed, targeting Central African youth. Each organisation submitted a project proposal, with a detailed narrative and a proposed budget.

101 organisations based in the project areas wishing to participate therefore submitted activity proposals and a series of documents officially recognising their status in the various Maisons des Jeunes supported by the project.

An initial selection process, aimed at checking the documentation attached to the application, was carried out in close collaboration with the Directorate General for Youth.

The selected organisations were then contacted by COOPI to discuss their projects, make any necessary changes and receive information on the management of the project from a procedural and programme point of view.

These small organisations were given a certain amount of freedom in managing their activities, and a variety of proposals were put forward by the organisations. The theme most often addressed was certainly that of ‘social cohesion’, an issue strongly felt by young people in the Central African Republic. The methods of intervention varied: for example, some organisations proposed sports tournaments (football, handball), taking advantage of the Central African population's interest in sporting activities and the presence of a large audience to conduct awareness-raising campaigns; others organised more traditional training sessions on social issues; still others focused on training a group of youth representatives to organise door-to-door campaigns or awareness-raising caravans.

 

What are you doing in the 7th arrondissement? Everyone talks about COOPI in my neighbourhood, it's full of children and young people at the Maison de Jeunes. Everyone says ‘COOPI, COOPI, Fond BEKOU’

Even casual and informal conversations, such as the one between a caretaker and the COOPI project manager on a Sunday morning, testified to the participation and appreciation of this activity by the young public and the general population of the areas concerned.

It was an important opportunity for small organisations to measure themselves against a structured international NGO such as COOPI. Their ‘toolbox’ is now better equipped and some of them have remarkable ambitions for growth. This experience will help them to structure themselves better in the future.

The final stage of this activity was the presentation of the final reports to the COOPI team; the debriefing with the various organisations enabled us to appreciate the satisfaction of the organisations who had had the opportunity to put their ideas on paper, first in the form of a project, and then with Central African youth, in a complex context from the point of view of social cohesion. Their testimonies speak of a commitment and a desire for peace and stability, but also of a concern about the long road still to be travelled to achieve definitive stable social cohesion.

 Yes, it went very well and we thank you for your support. But we still have a lot of work to do to achieve real and lasting social cohesion in the country. 

Conversation between the contact person of a local organisation and the COOPI project manager during the debriefing

COOPI - Cooperazione internazionale has been present in the Central African Republic since 1974, engaging in emergency and development projects mainly in the areas of protection, emergency education and food security. Since July 2021, the ‘Youth, hope for the Central African Republic: Masséka békou ti Bé-Afrika’ project has been supporting youth programmes and their participation in consolidating dialogue and social cohesion.