What is different about Friends of Bonou?

• We believe that the education of girls is the best hope for fighting global poverty and a sure and tested way of contributing to the development of the country
• All the funds we raised go directly to our projects: we have virtually no administration costs as we are all volunteers.
• We work in Bénin which, in spite of serious problems of poverty and under-development, has a fully fledged, functioning democratic government with solid institutions, a model in Africa with no war, no devastating famine and no ethnic tensions.
• Local people tell us what they need, not the other way around: we work directly with the villagers and through a ‘follow-up’ team of volunteers headed by Dr Dominique Hounkonnou and from the start of the joint work, there has been an emphasis on consultation and joint planning through regular participative workshops between us and our partners.

We maintain friendly personal contacts with the village and with the Sonagnon Centre staff and Management Committee through regular self-financed visits. We also communicate very frequently with the follow-up team through phone calls, Skype conversations, emails and written reports