AMIGO Foundation : Building a future for youths

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A broken home. A drop out of school. Daily loitering in the streets. A bunch of young people. A sequence of legal violation. Any chance for a better future?

AMIGO Foundation Ivory Coast tackles precisely the problem of a lack of perspective for many young people in the village of Niangon Loaka, in Yopougon, Abidjan.

Children and adolescents, all male,aged thirteento eighteen,come from a difficult social background and are in trouble with the law, their families or the educational system.

By its threefold focus, covering social issues, the training center brings good and reliable prospects for the future of thesechildrenand young adultswhoare otherwise likely to go astray:

Social care and assistance

  • Activities and workshop aiming to build a sense of responsibility and transfer key life knowledge to make the apprentices and students become independent

Professional training

  • Two-year training program for craftsmen professions with a subsequent graduation ceremony

Professional follow-up

  • Three-year post-graduation follow-up to prevent work force exploitation and guarantee the successful social reinsertion of the former trainee

Continuity and perseverance are paramount to the Center AMIGO.

Therefore, it is important that every single legal guardian is committed to enable the child to attend regularly to the center’s education and training programs. Indeed, the pupil and trainees can only get back on track when every party involved in their education and social life pulls in the same direction.

Today, AMIGO changes the lives of 60 – 70 young men in its socio-educational training center in Niango Loaka. Only recently, 8 months ago to be precise, it has expanded its activity by opening another center for the same number of girls.

YouTooday is happy lo learn about the insights provided by Padre Vicente, director of centerliving himself on site, when visiting AMIGO. “Usually I play around with the children bare-footed and not wearing more than a pair of shorts “, he told us with a big laugh, “but when I receive guests, I am able to make an effort.”

To Padre Vicente, AMIGO Foundation is more than merely a daily job. It is a commitment to strive relentlessly for the positive impact that he can personally achieve with his team for the children in need in the biggest neighborhood of Abidjan, Yopougon.

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