Sergio Mattarella, President of the Italian Republic, visited the 4 primary schools belonging to the Vridi Canal school complex, in Abidjan, where AVSI works in collaboration with the Ministry of National Education and Literacy of Côte d'Ivoire, within the framework of a project in partnership with Eni. The President was welcomed by Robert Beugré Mambé, Prime Minister of Ivoru Coast, Mariatou Kone, Minister of Education of Ivory Coast, Giampaolo Silvestri, AVSI Secretary General, Nicola Mavilla, Managing Director of Eni Côte d'Ivoire, and representatives of local institutions.
The President walked through the classrooms of the school complex and talked with pupils, teachers, parents and the heads of the school management committees.
The Vridi Canal school complex is made up of 4 schools, where 1,450 pupils attend primary school (from 1st to 6th grade). The intervention is part of a project to support the Ivorian school system, that is currently being implemented in 20 schools thanks to a partnership with Eni. The project includes the following activities:
- teacher training on holistic educational approach;
- involvement of parents in pedagogical activities;
- creation of school management committees to foster better interaction between parents and teachers;
- renovation of school buildings (classrooms and offices) and drinking water supply points;
- replacement of latrines with new toilets; construction of sports fields.
AVSI is very active in the education sector in Ivory Coast and our activities cover 700 schools, where we promote integrated interventions to foster quality education as envisaged by our mission, which defines education as the cornerstone of development.
We can carry out these activities thanks to many different donors, including the San Zeno Foundation and the US government (McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program), in 11 different regions of Cote d’Ivoire. In addition to renovating school buildings and facilities, AVSI always promotes teacher training and foster the involvement of the pupils' families and local community in education as well, because we see education as a path of accompaniment that should touch all aspects of a child's life.
Some of the main activities implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education and Literacy include: training and requalification of teachers, supply of school materials, creation of more than 3,000 mobile libraries (containing a total of 180,000 textbooks), remedial courses for children, renovation of school buildings, classrooms, toilets and drinking water supply points, and participation in the World Food Programme's project to provide school canteens for 125,000 pupils in rural areas in the north of Ivory Coast.
We are proud of this collaboration with the Ministry of Education in Ivory Coast. In this school we see that development requires quality education in the first instance. And this can be offered when strategic collaborations and equal partnerships are created between local institutions, local government, civil society organizations and the private sector. Here in Abidjan we understand that supporting education, in Africa as in Italy, it means investing in everyone's development."
Giampaolo Silvestri, AVSI Secretary General
The project implemented in this and in other schools, thanks to the results achieved, represents a successful example of cooperation promoted by Italian actors. For this reason, it has been presented by AVSI and the Ministry of Education of Ivory Coast as a successful model to ask for the mobilization of the Global Partnership for Education’s multiplier funds, which would help in realizing even more high-impact concrete actions in education in Ivory Coast.
