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20 women from Bissorã began their professional activities as seamstresses in the new tailor’s office created by the Vocational School, thanks to the financing of the German Embassy.

The 20 women attended the course of cutting, sewing and knitting at the Vocational School in Bessan in 2010. Today, thanks to ADPP GB’s partnership with the German Embassy, the new entrepreneurs through their association can develop their work and increase Income through an organized sale.

A Health Corps of 35 volunteers is already in the border areas of the Gabú and Bolama-Bijagós regions in order to strengthen the capacity of communities to cope
To common diseases and epidemics, and to increase their skills in preventing community health problems.

The follow-up project to the actions taken by ADPP GB since 2015 in the country’s border areas for the prevention of the spread of the Ebola virus and other epidemics. The Volunteer Corps will work in the border areas until the end of 2017.

ADPP GB has been established in Guinea Bissau for more than three decades with the aim of contributing to the development of the country working shoulder to shoulder with the Guinean population. 35 years later, ADPP GB
celebrated the work carried out by the members of the organization over the years.

The opening ceremony took place at the Franco-Guinean Cultural Center with the presence of diplomatic corps, government, NGOs and ADPP officials. GB.Mario Cabral, former UNESCO ambassador, was in charge of closing the ceremony by appealing to the unity of all the actors To continue to work for the future of the country.

There was also a sporting event in the capital to promote unity as a way to achieve development under the motto “Together we create development”.

The African bank Orabank, committed to the development of Guinea-Bissau through annual support for development projects, made a donation to the School of Training of Teachers DNS for a value of 2,500,000 cfa. The funding is intended to support the International Research study conducted by students of the DNS School in the neighboring countries of the subregion for 2 months.

In International Research, students investigate the educational system of the countries visited, their economy, their media, their environment, their fishing and their health system, among others, which allows them to know other realities and analyze the advantages And challenges that Guinea-Bissau has to face for further development in the future as well as to achieve its future professional work for children with empowered tools based on first-person knowledge and not just through books.

The Farmers’ Clubs Renewable Energy project is now in the fifth and last year of its implementation. It is still working with 24 villages in the Bissora sector. In total 2600 families are organized in 52 clubs in the project area. During the last year the project is working in three operational activity areas: (A) Farming, (B) Processing and Commercialization, (C) Community or Social Activities. 

 Under the third line of Community and Social Activities, the project is operating 24 community centers in the villages. The community centers were established in 2013 and are being used for a variety of activities. 

All community centers have solar equipment installed for electricity, which facilitates the activities that take place. 

Activities taking place at the community centers are adult literacy courses, preschool educational activities, cultural events, meetings and film presentations, among other things. 

In 2015 and 2016 the Farmers’ Club received a donation of furniture to refurbish the community centers. The donation came in two phases 5 centers received the furniture in 2015 and in 2016 in the month of May the other 19 community centers received the furniture.  The donations of furniture have increased the interest of many farmers. There was an increase of farmers enrolling in the adult literacy courses.  

Some of the other community activities carried out by the Farmers’ Clubs are sensitization campaigns about the use of latrines and the excavation of garbage pits, lessons about the environment and renewable energy sources, and sensitization about sexual reproductive health. 

My name is Louis Sanha of Quere village, from Balanta tribe. I have been in the project Farmers’ Club for 17 months, but what I have learnt and achieved from this project is more than what I expected.

In my life I had never practiced horticulture; this year I established a vegetable garden of more than half a hectare and managed to produce 528 kg of tomatoes, 259 kg of water melon, 167 kg of onion including 89kgs of carrots. I was just trying. Furthermore, I also produced Cabbage, green pepper, djagatu, okra, lettuce, and local varieties of vegetables grown in our country.
The total production which has come out of this land is more than 4.5 tons. My life has really changed and my family is now a happy one. During the start of the project I was so reluctant to join but now I am very satisfied with the activities.”

Louis Sanha’s income level has increased because he has a supplementary income flowing from the horticulture activities. The capacity he developed had empowered him to economically build a hedge from hunger, economic vulnerability and also take farming as a business venture. Using the hand dug well for water provision in the initial stages has worked to his advantage as he has a perennial water source which supports market gardening. He foresees investment in a low-cost rope and washer pump to boost water supply and increase acreage as well as venturing into cashew-nut production.

Louis has been a model farmer in the tribe of Balantas where horticulture production is usually not generally in practice among the rural small-scale farmers. The mobilization for horticulture production is a key step in crop-diversification, nutrition support and commercialization of agronomy among rural farmers. It is a break-through when one regards such gardening roles being culturally expected to be undertaken by women as compared to men.

The systematic teaching practice took its beginning in the neighboring primary schools. 3 days a week the students from DNS Cacheu met the children in their classrooms together with their teacher, the first days by watching and listening to the school teacher; later starting planning and practicing themselves, following the old principle that “Practice Makes Perfect” and overcoming from an early stage the whatever fear, they might have had in exposing themselves.

Collectively in the groups the plans of each student were commented and improved before being practiced at the school.

Another key element in the program was initiated during the teaching period. IST (It is Show Time) where the students exercise a bouquet of performances, such as dancing, theater play, poems, drawings, songs for and with their pupils, took its beginning, and as part of this people from the surrounding communities were invited for programs during evenings and weekends.

Still another innovatory creation in the DNS program moved from theoretical description in the Book to practice at the school. The SPS, Saturday Pedagogical Session, had its first event with the title: “The importance of education in practical capacities”. 9 primary school teachers from the practice schools, the 40 students from our school and 5 DNS teachers including headmaster; in total 54 participants were present during the Saturday Pedagogical Session.

The main study subjects for the students during this period were: Child Psychology, Pedagogy, Social Science, Mathematics, School Organization and Administration, Sociology, Agriculture and Physical Education including sport. The last week of the period had the subject “The World” with the content to study and understand the world.

The students learned about the reasons of some countries being poor and people getting angry, while other countries are rich, and why we in this way have a divided world. Some of the methods included, that Functional Groups made performances e.g. poem, song and theater addressing people in the community about it.