On November 14, 2018, a conference debate on entrepreneurship in local languages was held, moderated by our Leadership Project Manager Bruno HOUNDJO in the CAEB conference room in Lokossa. This conference was attended by about thirty students who spoke in the local languages Fon, Kotafon, Mina and Adja. One group defended the thesis of "private initiative as a source of wealth creation and independence". The second supported the assertion that "working for the state is a guarantee of security and financial and social stability".
The participants had a comprehensive understanding of the importance of entrepreneurship for themselves and their communities. Several business ideas that could already be developed by the participants were discussed in plenary. Finally, they hoped that debates on similar themes would continue throughout the school year in order to be more experienced.
Funding and partners
We carried out this activity at zero francs and benefited from the technical support of the CAEB which made its conference room available to us.
Results obtained and quantified impact
• Thirty (30) schoolchildren and pupils understood and explained in local languages the importance of entrepreneurship;
• Thirty (30) managed to speak in public and developed arguments in their mother tongues.
Difficulties encountered and solution approaches
During this activity, we did not have the presence of local language experts. We had to develop a collective expertise with all the participants in order to help each other to express themselves well in their languages.
