Socio-economic wellbeing
Telehit Maria Chantale: secretary of the Ayanou association in Chiépo, Côte d’Ivoire.
"Now all the women are educated and work from a feminine and holistic perspective. By doing everything together, we support each other and ensure that us women can become more independent"
Introduction:
Ayanou means “woman who works” and the association consists of about 60 women from the village of Chièpo who meet every Sunday to talk about their work. To do so, they find a remote, concealed space so as not to be disturbed.
Anesvad Foundation:
What does it mean to you to be part of the Ayanou women’s association?
Telehit Maria Chantale:
It means encouraging women to work, to collaborate in a cooperative manner, to communicate, to practise solidarity… collectively, to become more independent. Before the training, we women were a bit dispersed; that’s how it is.
Anesvad Foundation:
How have the training courses provided by the Anesvad Foundation and the Follereau Foundation helped you?
Telehit Maria Chantale:
They’ve given us a lot of training. Now all the women are educated and work from a feminine and holistic perspective. We look after the village, sweeping it, the market, the hospital… everything.
We organise ourselves and work together. We communicate, we meet up and we eat together. By doing everything together, we support each other and ensure that us women can become more independent.
Anesvad Foundation:
For you personally, in your daily life, what changes has it involved?
Telehit Maria Chantale:
Several. Since the Follereau and Anesvad foundations began to support us, my whole life has changed. I didn’t have a television before and now I’ve been able to buy one.
It’s all because I’ve been able to save: we’ve learned how to make soap and I’ve got into the habit of making my own soap, so I don’t spend money on that anymore. I don’t buy it in the market; I make it myself.
Anesvad Foundation:
You are also now responsible for fetching water and making sure that everything is in good condition in the wells that have been installed closer to people’s homes. Do you think that has improved the quality of life?
Telehit Maria Chantale:
Yes, it has improved in terms of water, because before, we used to drink water from the river and we couldn’t drill the wells. The input of the Raoul Follereau Foundation and Anesvad has meant that we are now able to drink water from the wells and to use the pumps.
When we go out in the fields, before preparing the food, we wash our hands and wash the vegetables. And we clean everything afterwards. Now, also, when we go to draw water, we put it in jerry cans that are sealed. And that’s the water we drink. We no longer drink water that we have carried in jars uncovered over our heads. That’s what we do now.
Anesvad Foundation:
And has this new way of managing water had results as regards the health of the community?
Telehit Maria Chantale:
Yes, we don’t get sick like before; we don’t have diarrhoea anymore. When we used to use water from the river, we had many cases of diarrhoea. A whole set of diseases have been reduced: yaws, Buruli ulcer, leprosy… Now there are fewer cases.
In other words, we’re very happy. Thank you very much.