Background
Yapele Beer Thialane was founded on the 17th of November 2009. Beer is a small village of about 3.000 inhabitants North of the capital Dakar, Senegal, where a significant number of men set off and arrived to the left bank of Bilbao (Portugalete, Santurtzi). The Beer emigrants felt the need both to act to improve life conditions in their home village and to introduce their culture to the Basque society.
Objective
- To promote sustainable human development in the village of Beer (Senegal) through development actions with projects that will improve life conditions.
- To strengthen the Senegalese migrants’ network in Spain and Europe.
- To strengthen civil society and a participative democracy in Senegal.
- To raise awareness among the host society about human development in Senegal.
Activities in Spain
Training of the association members
The members of the association take part in training sessions to improve the association management and work. Training is run by charity organisations:
- Volunteer Promotion Service of Portugalete, ADAKA
- The Vizcaya agency for the volunteer service and associations, BOLUNTA
- The Basque NGO Coordinator for migrant support, HARRESIAK APURTUZ, Bilbao
- Intercultural association BaoBat Elkartea, Santurtzi.
Awareness raising activities among the local population (Portugalete and Santurtzi)
The awareness raising activities aim to introduce the members of the Yapele Beer association and their culture to the neighbourhood. The awareness raising activities aimed to the youth (cultural workshops) are run in schools and extra-school associations:
- Santa María Ikastetxea School, Portugalete.
- Ruperto Medina School, Portugalete.
- Ballonti Institute, Portugalete.
- Asti Leku Ikastola School, Portugalete.
- San José Carmelitas School, Santurtzi.
- Siete Campas Zorroza School, Bilbao.
- The Scout group Belatzak, Portugalete
- The leisure club Engoitik, Portugalete.
Development cooperation activities in the village of Beer, Senegal
School 2015
To improve the village school. Extension and building of two new classrooms.
Primary school pupils had their lessons in the schoolyard because of the poor conditions of the building and risk of collapse.
Two classrooms have been built in the village school and were equipped with children desks and chairs to improve teaching and learning conditions.
Encouraged the attendance of kinkergarden pupils, with a particular emphasis on girls.
Water Project 2016
Promotion of hygiene habits and sustainable use of water resources through the improvement of clean water supply to the population of Beer, Senegal.
- Extension of the water infrastructure with the construction of main pipe networks to improve the life conditions of the families of Beer.
Yapele Beer run the fund raising activities for the Water Project implementation. The village committees’ volunteers coordinated the project for they directly knew about the reality of needs. The project run as:
- Scheduling of work
- Request of estimates
- Purchases of material
- Construction of pipe trails
- Evaluation
Health Centre
Improvement of Beer health centre. The conditions of the health centre were poor to respond to emergency cases, such as birth labour, malaria and cholera patients, and serious injuries. The village inhabitants had use poor public transport to have their health needs care for in Bayakh.
The project activities included:
- Purchase of medical instruments
- Purchase of stretchers
- Collaboration with Spanish nurses
- Extension of the premises with four new houses
- Pharmacy and patient visit room
- Nurse office
- Two maternity wards
Results
Awareness raising activities
The awareness raising activities run in Spain led to strengthen links and build up teamwork between the association members and the Portugalete population. Some results of these activities:
- A Spanish nurse travelled to Beer to spent time in Beer health centre.
- The children of the local soccer championship donated sport prices and school material to Beer school.
School Project 2015: The school environment is safe, clean and ease children learning and playing.
Water Project 2016:The Project led to the strengthening of community and municipal management of local water resources; it has increased the uses of water and local skills in community building. Beer inhabitants have access to clean water in their homes for: drinking water, personal hygiene, house works, cooking, house cleaning. Women and children have more time of their own to spend on education (no need to walk to collect water) and their health improves (no more water weight to carry on their heads).
Health centre: Thanks to its premises improvement and availability of medicinals, it has been upgraded from poste de santé (health point) to a centre de santé (health centre) with a state nurse.
