GUINEA BISSAU

Guinea Bissau is situated in West Africa and is one of the world's poorest and least developed countries. In 1994, 20 years after independence from Portugal, the country's first multiparty presidential elections were held. An army uprising that triggered a bloody civil war in 1998, created hundreds of thousands of refugees. The president was ousted by a military coup in May 1999. In February 2000, a transitional government turned over power to opposition leader Kumba YALA, after he was elected president in transparent polling. In September 2003, after only three years in office, YALA was ousted by the military in a bloodless coup, and businessman Henrique ROSA was sworn in as interim president. In 2005, former President VIEIRA was re-elected president pledging to pursue economic development and national reconciliation. Guinea-Bissau's transition back to democracy will be complicated by a crippled economy devastated by civil war.

The official language in Guinea Bissau is Portuguese, however, the most commonly spoken language is Creole. In the country, Humana operates under the title ADPP (Ajuda de Desenvolvimento Povo para Povo).

President: Malam Bacai Sanhá.
Area: 36.120 km2.
Population (2006 est.): 1.460.253.
Infant mortality rate: 99,82 per 1.000 live births (2009).
Life expectancy: 47,9 (2009).
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Bissau, 296.900.
Monetary unit: CFA Franc.
Languages: Portuguese (official), Criolo, African languages.
Ethnicity/race: 99% (Balanta 30%, Fula 20%, Manjaca 14%, Mandinga 13%, Papel 7%), European and mulatto less than 1%.
Religions: Indigenous beliefs 50%, Muslim 45%, Christian 5%.
Literacy rate (2003 est.): 42.4%.

ADPP in Guinea Bissau

RECENT BACKGROUND FOR THE WORK OF ADPP IN GUINEA BISSAU

In 2005 Guinea Bissau held general election and with a lot of international support the country formed a new government. This happened after several years with difficult situation following the civil war of 1998. It has been a challenge for the public systems as well as for organisations, business and people in general to make things function, and many international partners left Guinea Bissau due to difficult times and at times dangerous conditions.

During all these years ADPP in Guinea Bissau has stood shoulder to shoulder with the people in Guinea Bissau, and has carried out the work at the projects. In the period ADPP participated in the emergency relief aid and special projects to rebuild the country. The project have been haven, whwre people could count on continuous programmes and continuous support to build a better future. They have been bright spots in everyday life and hope for the future.

HISTORY OF ADPP GUINEA BISSAU

ADPP Guinea Bissau started in Guinea Bissau in the early ‘80s. In the first years many volunteers from Europe participated in building schools and clinics all over the country in cooperation with the new government, who came to power after the liberation war. ADPP Guinea Bissau established and renovated 400 he. plantation with cashew nuts near Bissora, to be able to participate in the professional development of cultivating and processing cashew nuts.

Throughout these years we gained a lot of experience in how you can build up a country and improve living conditions. We got a clear knowledge of what was necessary in the further development of the country. Based on this knowledge ADPP Guinea Bissau organized the work in permanent projects established in a certain geographical areas, and with a long-term commitment to the people in the area.

The projects were:

Child Aid, where focus is on securing that more children survive the first 5 years of their lives, where they are most vulnerable, with further emphasis on improving the conditions for the children in particular, and for all in the communities in general.

Vocational school, where young people are trained to take on professional jobs or to become self-employed. In any case they can participate in the economic development of the country, and have an income to support their family.

The project From Communal to Commercial Farmer educates farmers and equips them with new skills, so they can participate in the economic development and support their families.

During all the years ADPP Guinea Bissau has participated in humanitarian actions and relief aid, when this was necessary. Here are some examples:
· ADPP Guinea Bissau was the only national organization who continued to work in the country during the civil war in 1998 and 1999, where we distributed food and coordinated the efforts between the organizations outside the country and the authorities inside the country, so the aid actually reached the people who needed it.
· Distribution of food to primary schools and kindergartens in the Oio region, where the Child Aid project is situated.
· ADPP Guinea Bissau has built the maternity ward at the hospital in Bissora.
· ADPP Guinea Bissau organized big cleaning campaigns in the capital after the war.
· In the years 2003 and 2005 ADPP built 15 schools with 33 classrooms and 14 double latrines and 14 well.
· As part of stabilizing the country after the war, 773 demobilized soldiers participate in training at the vocational school as part of the project From Communal to Commercial Farmer. With this training the former soldiers will be able to earn an income in civilian life.

PROJECTS IN ADPP GUINEA BISSAU

1. From Communal to Commercial Farmer

The project educates professional small farmers. The core in the project is a three-year program, where the participants live at the project and participate full time in a practical and theoretical education. The aim of the education is to make it possible for the farmers to establish a better family economy while becoming professional farmers. 200 peasants have been trained and live on their own land. A new team with 218 farmers is undergoing education.

In additions the project runs Farmers Club. Here local farmers organize themselves together, they participate in training to improve their production, they organize common purchase and sale of their products, and they are organized about improving their living conditions. 3000 farmers and their families participate in these clubs. The project also runs the cashew plantation.

2. The Vocational School in Bissora

The vocational school educates 60 young people every year in a 1-year course in agriculture, building, trade and administration.

A total of 460 young people have been educated at the school since the beginning in 1997. The majority of them participate in various ways in the strengthening of the economy and production in the country. The school also functions as educational and cultural centre for the city of Bissora with various short courses and arrangements like training demobilized soldiers to take up civilian work.

3. Child Aid in Bissora

Child Aid works towards creating a society, where the children’s health and wellbeing is given priority and is carried out in many various programs and actions. The children, the parents, and everybody else with an interest in developing their local community participate actively in the programmes. The project builds on everybody’s efforts, including those of the institutions with particular responsibility for health and development like clinics, schools, and traditional leadership structures.

The participants are organized, they learn about hygiene and health, build latrines and wells, make practical actions to create improvements, start kindergartens, learn how they can increase their income, take care of the environment and much more. The project reaches 22.000 persons with various programs.

4. ADPP Clothes Sale

ADPP Clothes Sale has 4 purposes:
1. To supply Guinea Bissau with second hand clothes and shoes of good quality and so cheap that people can afford to buy it.
2. To earn money for ADPP’s development projects.
3. To participate in the economic development in Guinea Bissau.
4. To run a modern workplace.
Clothes are one of man’s fundamental demands. United Nations declares that every human should have 1.5 kg of clothes every year. In Guinea Bissau there is not enough clothes to cover this demand, so sale of clothes is very necessary. The clothes and shoes are sold in wholesale; so many smaller businessmen can make money by reselling the clothes. In 2006 ADPP will start the first shop with direct sale of the clothes to retail customers.
In the last years ADPP Clothes sale has had a stable income, which covers the majority of the expenses for running the projects. ADPP Guinea Bissau finds that there is reason to look at the future in a bright light. In a politically more stable situation the country willl function better. This point of view is supported by the fact that many Guineans return from abroad to participate in the reconstruction of the country. ADPP Guinea Bissau will build on the good contacts to the old and new forces in the development of Guinea Bissau and will continue to cooperate with different partners in the country. We see possibilities for the general progressand strengthening of ADPP's work and efforts in favour of the development of Guinea Bissau.

Child Aid Bissora

Infants aged between 0 to 12 months are most sensitive to the provision of clean water, good food, suitable housing and clothing, quality health care, the education of their parents, and close attention. Infant mortality rate provides a quick measure of the quality of the food and water available, the quality of housing and clothing, the quality of the health care, and the quality of the education in a whole population.

Malaria, cholera and diarrhea have cost thousands of children’s lives each year in Guinea Bissau. It is against this background that DAPP Child Aid Bissora was established in 1990, to improve the living conditions of children and their families in the areas of education, health and nutrition. The project is located in the region of Oio in the town of Bissora. The town has a population of approximately 8.000 people and about 45.000 people in the surrounding villages.

The Child Aid operates its programs in Bissora, Mansoa, Nhacra, Farim and Olossato Section (Sector of Mansaba). In these areas the project operates 5 different programs, which are:
· Family Program
· School Program
· Ex-Combatant Program
· Action Program
· Small Project Program

The Family Program has been active in improving the standard of health and hygiene in the community focusing on provision of water and basic sanitation facilities. Cleaning campaigns are held, and discussions are held on a regular basis to sensitise the families about cleanliness. The project has built and rehabilitated latrines in the community and in schools as a measure to promote cleanliness and curb cholera.

To control the spread of malaria, the project in conjunction with Bissorã Hospital distributed mosquito nets for free to children under 5 years, pregnant women and other vulnerable people in Bissorã. Other community members bought mosquito nets from the project at a low cost price. The project in partnership with Bissorã Hospital runs weekend talks and seminars on reproductive health.

Different activities were introduced to fight HIV/AIDS in Bissorã. Condoms were distributed to high school students and soldiers in Bissora, Mansoa, Nhacra, Farim and the Olossato Section (Sector of Mansaba) in Oio region. Seminars to teach the community on proper use condoms and how to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS were held. Youths formed theatre and dancing groups to entertain, educate, and inform the community about HIV/AIDS. Talks and debates about HIV/AIDS were organised for the community. A medical doctor and staff from Bissorã Hospital lead the talks and debates.

The project operates pre-schools in Bissora. It trains pre-school teachers and provide educational materials to be used in classes. The project campaigned for all parents to pay the monthly school fee of 500 Fcfa so that the pre-school teacher would get a salary from the fees. Part of the money for paying teachers’ salaries is raised from school canteen sales. Paying teachers a salary will attract more people from the villages to undergo training and teach at the pre-schools.

Children from the pre-schools and the primary schools meet at the Child Aid Centre to celebrate events like the International Day of the Children. Parents are invited to attend and participate at such events. Events like these give parents an opportunity to see what their children learn at school. The project staff together with the Development Instructor has taken census of orphans in the community of Bissorã area. These children are encouraged to attend school. UNICEF has noted that less than 45% of the children in Guinea Bissau attend school.

The project has made an agreement with the WFP to assist in the distribution of food in 54 public primary schools, 43 community primary schools and 23 pre-schools in Bissorã and Mansoa. The Project assists in the organisation and supervision of the food distribution. Rooms for food storage have been built by the project with assistance from local education authorities. The Project assisted 143 Ex-Combatants to build their new houses and to renovate of 157 houses in Bissorã and Mansoa in Oio region. Village heads and project staff organised the construction of these houses. They are in charge of sourcing for building material and monitoring progress at the building sites.

The project has encouraged women to form groups and go into vegetable production to generate income for their families. The project distributes seeds to the groups to help them start running the projects. 40 families from Candjungude received a donation of 152 chickens from FAO to start their own chicken production project. To develop the Bissorã community in 2004, the project constructed 38 latrines, 13 water wells and maintained 15 schools. 120 schools participated in the schools program and the program reached out to 17000 children. 300 orphans were registered through the outreach program. 10 pre-schools were open in the district and 900 children attended classes.

The Vocational School

The Vocational School train youths in academic and technical skills so that they can be employed by established companies or can start their own enterprises. ADPP Guinea Bissau opened the vocational school in Bissora in 1997 and 397 students have graduated from the college. The youth constitute the greatest proportion of the productive sector in Guinea Bissau, and empowering them with skills training develops the country’s economy. The training at the vocational school emphasises both on entrepreneurship and training of the youths to take up employment in companies.

A survey of the college graduates in 2003 showed that 50 %of the graduates from the college are self-employed and 25% are employed in the formal and informal sectors of the economy. The graduates create employment for themselves and are creating employment for other people in Guinea Bissau. The college offers training in commerce, agriculture and construction. Students do academic subjects like maths, portuguese, geography, biology and physics at the same time they will study for their technical certificates. The curriculum offers time for sports activities and competitions to keep the students healthy and fit physically and mentally. The training program at the college exposes the students to real world work experience in their vocations. This is done in two ways:

1. At the college the students are actively involved in production work. The agriculture students use the school garden and fields to produce during their practical lessons. The commerce students are running the school shop which sale second hand clothes and shoes. The construction students take part in the construction of houses in Bissora and general building maintenance at the college.

2. The second way is that students gain work experience through industrial attachments. The students are attached to companies in their different areas of study and work under the supervision of the company authorities and their teachers’ visit then to assess their performance. This kind of experiences makes it possible for students to have a broader and a more practical understanding of their field of study the real situation in the work places and the sector in the economy of the country.

Students do courses in HIV/AIDS awareness and they carry out campaigns in the community to educate the people about the epidemic and other diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.

Clothes Sales

In Africa the majority of the population is poor and cannot afford to buy the most basic human needs: food, clothing and shelter. According to United Nations a human being needs a minimum of 2kgs (8-10 pieces of clothing) per year. In Africa and Asia most people only get 1-4 items of clothing per year on average.

The Clothes and Shoes Sales Projects sell clothes and shoes in remote areas so that communities can have an opportunity to meet one of the basic human needs: clothing. The projects address a need for low cost and affordable clothing and it is necessary to keep a constant supply of these affordable clothes and shoes to the poor communities of Africa and Asia. Humana People to People members in Angola, Guinea Bissau, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe provide quality second hand clothing to people in the rural areas and in the towns at an affordable price.

In Europe and North America, members of Humana People to People collect used clothes and donate part of them to their counterparts in Africa and Asia after sorting a sorting process ensuring that each piece of clothing is used in the best possible way. The proceeds from the sales of the second hand clothes and shoes are used to cover expenses to run development projects by the member organisations in Africa and Asia. Some of the surplus derives from the donation, collection and sorting processes in Europe and North America; some of it derives from the further processing in the final country of destination, and indirectly from arrangements with the local governments involved.

The donated clothes and shoes have a value, which can be transformed into money through the sales in the receiving countries. The work put into the clothes from the collection point to the point where they are sold to a local trader in Africa or Asia, make them accumulate an additional value. The clothes and shoes arrive in sorting centres in Africa as 500 kg bales packed in 40 foot containers. The clothes undergo yet another sorting process, through which they gain more value. A small percentage of the clothes are sold wholesale without further processing the 500kg bales. These are normally bought by local business people who will sort them with their employees and sale them to small traders or directly to people at a local market.

Most of the clothes are sold to local traders in bales of 45 kg - and those traders go for specific, well-known products, which will give them the possibility of earning a profit when they sell the clothes in the marketplace. Here you find the specialized stalls - one for men's shirts, another one for jeans, yet another one for women's dresses or children's clothes. All the way through the links of trade the clothes are added more value, every time a person puts his work into it to get it sorted, displayed, hung up and lastly sold to the right customer.

In some of the countries ADPP or DAPP itself sells the clothes in retail shops that are conveniently placed in remote areas for access by poor communities. In some cases DAPP provide mobile shops to reach the farthest and remote corners of the country. Since the selling and operation of clothes have very high and detailed demands, the DAPP projects employ locals to work in the shops. This way projects create employment as well as address a need for low cost and affordable clothing to the communities. Another percentage of the clothes is used as relief aid, in times of disasters and famine. At times like these clothes are given for free to people in need. In some cases clothes are donated to the poor people of the community who cannot afford to buy them. There is always a surpl us stock of clothes for relief aid and for giving to the poor in the communities.

As the Humana People to People members in Africa and India can sell more clothes than they can get as donations from other members in Europe and North America, the Federation Humana People to People tops up the donations with clothes bought from commercial clothes and shoes dealers, which is then donated to the members. The Federation Humana People to People co-ordinates on behalf of the members in North and South, so that the optimal distribution of the different qualities of clothes is maintained, and the optimal logistic is being planned for each of the receiving countries.

The clothes and shoes projects inject economical energy into the local business environment. Every time there are goods available for purchase, the local economy is being strengthened. An important but indirect economic effect of clothes sales is linked to the commercialisation of the agricultural produce. In Mozambique peasant farmers cultivate in isolated remote areas and their incentive to produce for the market had been very low. Networks of clothes and shoes traders and wholesalers have been penetrating these remote areas selling their merchandise to the peasants. This has incited peasant farmers to grow more for batter trading with the traders and wholesalers. In some cases small-scale farmers have been motivated by the availability of goods to purchase to produce a surplus and get this surplus realised in cash money for use at the local market. The possibility to access goods you can afford and which meet one of the most basic human needs for yourself and your family in a dignified manner is essential for development.

The whole process, from collecting donated clothes and shoes in the North right down to the selling of the last item on the market creates a large number of jobs and self-employment. Altogether the Humana People to People members create approximately 900 jobs in 5 countries in Southern Africa, while there are 8.500 regular customers, and 30.500 self-employed people as a result of the trade. The proceeds from the sales of the second hand clothes and shoes are used to cover expenses to run development projects by the member organisations in Africa and Asia. Some of the surplus derives from the donation, collection and sorting processes in Europe and North America; some of it derives from the further processing in the final country of destination, and indirectly from arrangements with the local governments involved.

Cholera awareness campaign

Oio region

Guinea Bissau

The Child Aid project in Bissora is fighting cholera outbreaks in Bissora, Binar and Inchea areas in Oio region. The project is educating and assisting the communities in constructing latrines, cleaning common market places, providing hands washing facilities in markets, in schools and establishing rubbish pits.

The Child Aid project in Bissora is a project by ADPP in Guinea Bissau. The project is working with families in improving their standards of living by providing better healthy and hygienic conditions, improving food production, providing better education facilities for the children, improving the economy of the families and taking care of the people affected and infected by HIV/AIDS. ADPP in Guinea Bissau is a member of the Federation of Associations connected to the Humana People to People Movement involved in international cooperation and development.

The project held a 10-day cholera campaign in Bissora, Binar and Incheia during the big market days. The campaign was in collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Oio. 44 people have died of cholera and 800 others are infected with the disease in Oio region. The project reached out to 7.864 people, with educational materials, dramas, and demonstrations on cholera prevention, signs and symptoms and treatment.