In a visit to her home country, Angelique got to spend some quality time with Batonga girls as she vibrantly advocated in favor of girls’ secondary education.

One of the highlights of her trip was a visit to the secondary school of Kpassagon, a village 3 hours north of Cotonou, Angelique spent the day talking to Batonga girls, their families, and mentors.  She also got to see the newly-finished latrines built at the school in partnership with Africare and the African Well Fund.

During the visit, one of the Batonga scholars, Anasthesie, emphasized the fact that Batonga is the “base of her education.”  Without the support she receives, she says she would not be able to attend school.  Anasthesie hopes to become a doctor so that she can help the sick children in her village.

New Latrines in Kpassagon, built in partnership with Africare and the African Well Fund

Angelique Dancing with Batonga Scholars in Kpassagon

Sponsor a Girl for a Year and Give the Gift of Education!

Choose from several gifts that will make the difference in the life of a Batonga girl:

A $15 donation will pay for one month of school for a girl in Sierra Leone.

A $40 donation will provide one girl in Benin with school lunch for an entire year.

A $75 donation will give a girl in Mali one year of tutoring and mentoring to help her thrive in secondary school.

A $150 donation will cover the annual cost of college tuition for a girl in Ethiopia.

When you purchase a gift, your friend or loved one will receive a personalized certificate detailing how much your donation is helping to educate girls in Africa in their honor! Be sure to specify your recipient’s name and address.

Click Here to Give the Gift of Education

Order Your One-of-a-Kind Holiday Cards Today!

Give a set of 10 beautiful cards, featuring artwork by Batonga girls in Ethiopia! When you buy this set of cards to send or give to someone as a gift this holiday season, 100% of the proceeds will go to our Batonga girls in Africa! The inside of the cards is left blank for a personal message or greeting. Each pack of 10 cards is $25 and shipping is free of charge! Follow the link below to order your set today!

Click here to purchase your one-of-a-kind notecards!

The Batonga Online Store is Always Open!

We have lots of great gift options in our online store, including mugs, t-shirts, tote bags and more!

Shop Batonga!

Don’t forget the Batonga Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) exempt charity and ALL donations are tax deductible!

A $5 donation at the door will go directly to our Batonga girls in Africa! It will also get you $3 Beers, $3 House Wines, $3 Call Mixed Drinks, and $5 Apps and Burgers. You may also buy raffle tickets for a chance to win 1 of 2 $50 bar tabs to Sign of the Whale, a free happy hour from 9-11 on a Thurs, Fri, or Sat at Sign of the Whale, a $100 gift card to Betsy Fisher, a $50 gift card to Woodmont Grill.Once again our beautiful Batonga bracelets will be on sale!

Sign of the Whale is located at 1825 M St. NW in Washington, DC. Check out signofthewhaledc.com for information about this great venue.

but the return on investment has the potential to be much higher by additionally keeping girls in school.

Thanks to the work of Africare and the African Well Fund, four Benin secondary schools attended by Batonga girls will receive hydraulic pumps and four-stall latrines by the start of 2012.  The African Well Fund is raising $49,998 to provide girls with education on hygiene and basic sanitation to prevent the spread of disease in contaminated water and to help prevent drop-out rates due to the onset of puberty.

This year, African Well Fund’s annual fundraiser for U2 singer Bono’s birthday originally collected proceeds from March 22^nd to May 1^st, though the fundraising has continued. The resulting funds are going towards a six month project in the Commune of Bohican, Benin, supplying up to 3000 students with a new option for healthy sanitation.

Inadequate sanitation facilities in schools result in low levels of attendance among girls due to the need for gender specific sanitation facilities for menstruation cycles and to prevent sexual harassment.  Up to 20% of girls menstruating are either absent from school or drop out all together.

Studies show that educating girls is one of the most important ways to improve a community.  For every extra year of schooling beyond the average, a girl’s eventual wages will be 10 to 20% higher and infant mortality drops 5 to 10% with an educated girl.  Educated girls are more likely to delay marriage and pregnancy and, when they do have a family, to reinvest their money in the family’s well-being.

The Commune of Bohican is the focus of this program, with 113,091 citizens.  In Bohicon, 7500 inhabitants share each water source, located within 20 kilometers.  Only 5% of the population has access to the water network.  Despite these problems, Bohicon has high secondary school enrollment.  Six out of ten children attend secondary school full-time.  Four schools in Bohican are attended by Batonga girls.

With these new water pumps and latrines the children attending these schools will have better access to clean water and thus an environment better suited to their educational needs.  For girls specifically these new innovations will offer them the chance to stay in school as they endure the effects of puberty and access facilities better suited to their unique needs.

For more information on the project go to http://www.africanwellfund.org/birthday-well.html and for information on our Batonga girls visit the batongafoundation.org.

Studies have shown that girls are 12% more likely to go to school if water is available within a 15-minute walk rather than a one hour’s walk.

In Cameroon, our partner organization, Africa Action on Aids (AAA), is ensuring that our girls have access to clean drinking water at school. AAA’s innovative portable drinking water station, pictured left, provides up to 50 students with safe drinking water on school grounds. A portable hand-washing station also helps to guard against the spread of diseases.

The President of AAA, Ruth Engo, speaks to the importance of these stations: “We do not have enough funds to treat the girls when they are sick and miss school, so we ensure that they do not get sick. We can assure you that the water and hand washing stations work, the number of girls who miss school during the year is almost zero.”

We are grateful for the work that AAA does and we applaud them for their 20 years of service and success. We look forward to continuing our partnership!

“I have no parents and I support myself working in other people’s homes.

Going to school means I have a future.”

“I want to be a model for the coming generation.”

“I thought I was meant to be in poverty, but now I see a better way.”

This program provides girls in the poorest districts of Southern Ethiopia with the opportunity to continue their education through secondary school and offers vocational training, loans, and other economic incentives to the girls’ mothers so that they may increase household income and be better able to support their daughters’ education.

Batonga is excited to continue working with Mercy Corps in this endeavor, which we believe will provide quality education to girls living in some of Ethiopia’s most impoverished villages.

In a statement, the organization said that rising water continues to “aggravate the situation.” Over 300 people have been killed in West and Central Africa and at least 680,000 people have been affected by the flooding in Benin alone.

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), about 200,000 people need shelter in the country, more than 55,000 homes have been totally destroyed, 128,000 hectares of crops have been destroyed, and 81,000 heads livestock have perished.

The World Food Programme (WFP), CARE and Caritas have distributed food to the homeless. ”Food is one of the most important needs,” said Moumini Ouedraogo, WFP. “Many people have lost their crops due to devastating floods, if we do not help, the consequences could be severe.”

The UN has provided 262,000 water purification tablets and hygiene supplies for 150,000 people. The World Health Organization (WHO) has treated 1,000 cases of cholera and Doctors Without Borders is providing treatment for the disease in the economic capital, Cotonou.

Source: AFP