Within the broader Hinda project, we came up with an initiative to spread literacy, setting up training centres where everyone, including in practice a large proportion of grown men and women, can learn to read, write and count until 2030. This is in line with the UN's fourth Sustainable Development Goal, quality education. The first phase of the Hinda project began in 2012. The second started in 2017 and saw the launch of a new literacy initiative for adults in its second year. To encourage local communities to take part, we spread information about it in Loemé-Nangama, Tchibanda, Kondi-Mbaka and Tchikoulou, the first places covered by the project. At the laucnh of the initiative, nine volunteers took part in training on teaching methods for adults and study programmes.
To encourage people to make the most of their individual skills, we not only funded education in the community but also launched joint initiatives. At each of the four facilities we ran farming projects, with a particular focus on rearing papaya and other crops to sell, the proceeds for which were given to the volunteers. In the long term, as the operation becomes more successful and incomes from farming go up, there are plans for forming the groups of students into a cooperative with a bank account for managing the financial side of their work. Today there are 90 people actively participating in literacy classes in the centres already running in Kondi-Mbaka and Tchikoulou. Two more will be opened at the beginning of the 2020–2021 year.
