“If the older children are in school, and we parents are out in the fields, who will take care of the babies?” This is a typical reaction of parents in Zakpota when asked to send children to school. Zakpota is a district in the Zou, a department of southern Benin.

In rural Benin, while farmers are working the fields, they entrust the care of their infants to older brothers and sisters. This means that the children never go to school and stay illiterate. As they are not in school, soon, these illiterate children fall prey to traffickers, who are often their own parents or a relative.

To allow older children to go to school instead of staying home to watch over their younger siblings, the School Mothers Associations and Parents Associations in the villages of Dan-Tota, Allohoun-Kodota, Adjoko, and Za-Aligoudo, have mobilized to create community preschools. UNICEF and USAID’s Girls Education and Community Participation project are also helping them. AME mothers are giving children a chance at getting a primary education.

Toddlers are now in preschool, freeing their older siblings to go to school and keeping them out of the reach of child traffickers.

By Pierre Achade, USAID/Benin

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