Quarterly Newsletter

April 2022

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Batonga is growing in 2022

Expansion and growth is the theme for 2022!

In March we opened our new office with more space to welcome our partners and the growing team. Our Executive Director, Emily Bove joined the team to kick off the festivities, meet with existing partners and work on our expansion plans with the team. We also welcomed new team members and we are so happy to have their expertise to help us continue to grow as an organization. It was a great occasion to gather and celebrate this milestone.

Meet the Newest Team Members

Chanceline MEVOWANOU

Digital Engagement

Benin

Chanceline is the Digital Engagement Officer for Batonga and Nos Voix Comptent initiative. In this role, she works to manage all social media accounts for Nos Voix Comptent and develop strong content that amplifies the voices of francophone activists. Read more...

Teslanik HOUNDEGNON

Project Manager, Nos Voix Comptent

Benin

Teslanik is the Coordinator of Batonga’s Initiative “Nos Voix Comptent”. Her main responsibility in this function is to lead the implementation and roll out the program’s communication and advocacy strategy. Read more...

Lakisha

RIDLEY

Community Engagement and Partnerships

USA

Lakisha is the Community Engagement and Partnerships Manager. She works to create clear communications and manage partnerships while strengthening Batonga's brand through promotion of our events and programs.

Did you know we are scaling in Benin?

Exploring New Communities

Batonga is expanding to new communities in Bohicon, Savalou, and Atacora (in Northern Benin). This will bring us to a total of 53 implementation communities across Benin. In February, Batonga staff visited 26 prospective villages in Bohicon and Savalou to meet with local leaders and begin the recruitment process for community staff positions. At the end of March, Batonga staff along with new partner Havre de Paix went into villages and gathered information using the Girl Roster app for collection and further analysis. More details in upcoming Quarterly Impact Report.

New Mentors and Business Coaches

In our new communities in Savalou and Bohicon, we started the recruitment process and were successful in finding many qualified mentors and business coaches to join our programs. For both communities we selected 43 new business coaches. In Bohicon we identified 93 potential new mentors and in Savalou we identified 119 from 11 villages.

New Business Circle Participants

In the same region of Central Benin (Bohicon and Savalou) our Young Women's Business Circle participant recruitment resulted in 2381 potential new Circle Members. In the north, the recruitment of participants in Atacora will take place in April.

Meet Our New Partner in Northern Benin

We are delighted to announce Havre de Paix, as our new NGO partner in the northern region of Atacora. As part of our expansion to reach more adolescent girls in Benin, the team collaborated with the Havre de Paix team to collect and gather crucial data using the Girl Roster app to identify key attributes of the village populations. Having Havre de Paix as a partner will facilitate an introduction to the local communities and inform Batonga's model and approach in this region. Havre de Paix is an association that works to improve the overall wellbeing of their region and to improve the living conditions of vulnerable and marginalized people in particular.

The team at Havre de Paix helping Batonga expand in Atacora in northern Benin.

Civic Engagement with OSIWA

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In January, the Batonga team awarded the participants of the Citoyennes en Herbes project a certificate, as well has some reading and arithmetic materials.

The OSIWA project implemented since January 2021, is a project that focuses on education and civic engagement in Batonga's intervention communities. This project aims to strengthen young girls and women in rural communities on the concepts of citizenship and leadership so that they become agents of change in their community through their leadership.

Learn More

And the Grammy goes to...

Congratulations to our Founder Angélique Kidjo on winning her 5th Grammy!

Join us in congratulating our Founder, Angélique Kidjo @angeliquekidjo − Grammy Winner of Best Global Music Album for "Mother Nature"!

You can listen to this Grammy winning album and support Angélique's GoFundMe for Batonga on Spotify!

Listen Now

Events

The Batonga Foundation hosted the latest Conversations For Africa where our special guests of young African women leaders discussed issues related to Economic Empowerment for Women in Africa.Conversations For Africa.

The Conversation was held live on Instagram on April 14th for the first time and will be posted to our YouTube Channel this month. Special Guests invited: Diane Ndarbawa, Armelle Natacha Agbahoungba, and Gloria Agueh

Moderated by: Teslanik Gbèdonou Houndegnon

Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to catch up on the other great conversations discussed to hear from more African voices.

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