It began at the 2018 Rotary Convention in Toronto where Mac Purcell, Past President of the Rotary Club of Paddington, met up with Dr John Tra – the CEO of a small NGO working in the CĂ´te d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast).
They spent time talking about how they could work together to improve the communities in the Marahoué area.
They met up with Adrian Brewer, CEO of the Rotary Water Barrel Project (ROTB, Roll out the Barrel), and that was how the Kweni Project was born: a partnership between the Rotary Club of Paddington, The Rotary Water Barrel Project and Kweni Inc.
The Kweni Project also facilitates various seminars and conferences for the young people of the area which has recently included entrepreneurship training, advice for girls on their sexuality during the holidays and even a visit from the the association of hairdressers of BouaflĂ©.”
Even through the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kweni Project has been able to keep changing lives in the local communities it operates in and now the club are able to report the multiple successful initiatives that it ran as part of the project.
The Kweni Project were able to help the community in a variety of different areas such as the training of youth for employment, the empowerment of local women and providing aid for disadvantaged populations.
The Bouaflé chess club allows the local children to unleash some of their competitive spirit.
One of the most recent achievements involved the delivery of school uniforms and kits to the underprivileged children of the Marahoué area.
Mr Raoul Boni represented the president Nicole Yep of the NGO UIFS (International Union of Women for Solidarity) which offered 50 uniforms and 25 school kits.
The school kits were given to the best students among the 90 children to reward them for the efforts they made despite the poverty of their parents.
The Kweni Project also facilitates various seminars and conferences for the young people of the area which has recently included entrepreneurship training, advice for girls on their sexuality during the holidays and even a visit from the the association of hairdressers of Bouaflé.
Even through the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kweni Project has been able to keep changing lives in the local communities it operates in.”
The project has been able to provide aid such as life jackets for the population on the shores of Lake Kossou and rolling barrels to the village of Kaloufa to help the women in their daily search for water.
They also gave a chance to the young people of the area to unleash their competitive spirit with the creation of a chess club for young girls and boys as well as providing training in cricket, volleyball and football all throughout the start of the year!
The Kweni Project facilitated various seminars and conferences for the young people of the area.
The biggest spur to so much on the project was the arrival of the BIG BOX, a 40ft container stuffed full of donated goods, estimated over 20,000 items, that has led directly to the setting up a sewing school, to train tailors, empowering women and girls, a Kweni Shop to sell handmade skin creams, face masks, feminine hygiene packs, school uniforms, several chess clubs using the chess sets donated, and so much more.
2021 built on the success the project had in 2020 where, amongst various other initiatives, they facilitated the donation of shoes, t-shirts, toys, bikes and safe-drinking filters to the poor villages across the Marahoué area.
All this information is just a snapshot of what the Kweni Project has achieved over the past couple of years, more of which can be found in the Kweni Project Press Books from 2021 and 2020.
The project is currently looking for like-minded partners and professionals to develop their ambitions in regards to solar power for light and water pumps and their expansion of economic regeneration through the empowerment of women and girls.
There are many opportunities to help this part of the world and the Kweni Project would welcome all the help you can give them.
