10 innovations that BP100 brings to the people in the city of Bohicon

The project BP100 aims to make Bohicon the cleanest city in Benin by 2025. Even if a clean city is an ideal, we are well aware that it is not the first of the concerns of the 'inhabitant of Bohicon.

In real life, many have hidden talents that no one has been able to detect. Others have degrees but no work opportunity. Women are economically under-represented. And finally, some people just need the bare minimum: a good meal offered as a courtesy.

In order to get the people involved in community action of BP100, it was important that we bring them something in exchange. And we decided to go big.

Here is a list of 10 innovation that BP100 is bringing to the people of Bohicon.

While these things are pretty normal in the modern world, most of them don't exist in many African societies, which makes them very eye opening to the people.

10- A joyful work place

During our prospecting in Bohicon, we were surprised to see how the young people in school welcomed the idea. We didn't expect that they take it as a major entertaining time. In fact, in Bohicon, young people have very few entertainment options outside of class.

The community cleanup offered by BP100 is a new attraction in the city with more than 500 people grouped around town with cheers and slogans. Enough to spend energy in a good atmosphere. It is an ideal place to meet new people.

9- Part-time job

In Benin, either you are working full time, or you are not working at all. There is no middle. The consequence is that young students do not have any work experience until they finish college. That makes it harder for them to find a job because they have absolutely no work experience.

We have decided to fill that gap by creating 100 part-time positions. BP100 is an opportunity for several young people who can benefit from a work experience through paid internships of 3 months, 6 months, and more.

Each in turn, the young people will be able to prove themselves for a period of 6 months. This allows us to impact up to 1000 people during the 5 years of the project. We offer them the opportunity to learn the rules of the job well, thoroughness, punctuality, and much more.

8- Giving food:

BP100 is the only community project in Benin that provides full meals weekly to 500 volunteers over a five-year period. It is a new approach to community work in Benin. In the current mindset of Benin, young people should work for their country without expecting any reward in return. No wonder why no one is really advancing the community.

With BP100, on the contrary, we see the young people of our country as people of high value and we are committed to welcoming their work with a lot of respect and humility.

Thus, every Saturday is a big celebration. After a fun 2 hours of cleaning work, each volunteer get a full plate of food and a drink. Providing meals is one way for us to show our respect in a country where many do not have enough to eat.

7- Gender Equality ( Hommes et Femmes)

There is an unconscious biais when it comes to working, innovating or having fun. Those are automatically set up to welcome males, without including females. Although done inadvertently, it goes to the detriment of young women in our country who feel marginalized. The problem seems so difficult to solve, yet it is very simple. At BP100, we thought, why not just cut the pear in half. Half men and half women in our events. In our pilot project in 2019, this strategy proved to make the activities more appealing. The presence of both sexes makes the work more interesting as people always look for a good environnement to connect and share experiences.

6- You get to help BP100 from anywhere

We are so excited about making Bohicon the cleanest city in Benin that we want people anywhere in the world to enjoy the cleaning activities with us.

For that, we have created a platform that gives you a full immersion in the weekly events. On top of that, we show you the culture in Benin. You get to see the daily life of various people of Bohicon. Our goal is to make you experience the full thing as if you were with us. In exchange, you will choose one of our membership options. The money collected is used to sponsor food and equipment for the volunteers.

Read our blog about the power in your hands

5- Youth Empowerment

Through the BP100 cleaning, a huge opportunity presents itself to rebrand the city of Bohicon. So we are engaging the youth of the city by offering various fun activities such as building restoration, wall painting, decorative graffiti, etc... Enough to give new extracurricular learning options for young people. We aim to help people reach their untapped potential and exploit it to create new employment possibilities in the future in the city of Bohicon.

4- Competitive salary

In Benin, the minimum wage is $ 80. Apart from the 500 volunteers to whom we provide meals every weekend, we hire supervisory and organizational staff. Young people will be able to work on Saturdays during cleaning activities. An ideal job for students who earn a salary while keeping the rest of the week for their studies.

Because of the low salary, we are able to pay our part-time employee the full minimum salary, even though they are nothing working as many hours as a normal employee. They will be making the same $80 for 40 hours a month versus average employee in Benin making $80 for 160 hours a month.

3- Une visibilité à l'international

Modern cities in the western world are developed thanks to exceptional visibility. Great achievements like a good football team or an exceptional singer can put a city on the map, and attract a lot of opportunities for the economy. Think about the number of caps with the NY sign that have been sold around the world because of New York City's international visibility. At $ 40 (20,000 CFA francs) per unit, imagine the income and number of jobs generated. Thanks to BP100, we want to create visibility, in order to open up opportunities for all kinds of "made in Bohicon" products and services.

2- Cultural exchanges

Of the 500 volunteers who will participate in BP100 every weekend, 50 to 100 will come from other cities in the country through educational outings that we will offer for colleges and universities in the sub-region. This will allow Bohicon to become a tourist attraction, and people from elsewhere to learn more about our activities.

1- More fun activities

The whole culture of the BP100 project of the NGO COSED is built around the idea that we can contribute to development while having fun. We give great support to the work of the authorities without forgetting to have a good time.

More than a city cleaning project, BP100 is establishing itself as the largest community development project ever carried out by civil society in Benin.

Thanks to our friendliness, we hope to attract partners from all walks of life who would like to contribute their part to the project. In the future, we want to work with partners to create related activities such as artists, musicians, comedians, entertainment specialists to brighten up the city under the theme of cleanliness.

Gilchrist Atchaoue

Founder and CEO

COSED