In January 2006, several members of the local assembly in Jakè (AVJ) started giving classes to young children whose families did not have enough money to send them to school. A few volunteer teachers began with a handful of students, and now there are a dozen teachers and around 120 children, most between seven and 12 years old. For more than a year, the teachers did not have books and sometimes not even enough chalk, but they still managed to give lessons five-days a week. Thanks to donations, the AVJ school now has books, notebooks, pencils and other necessary school supplies and provides a small stipend to the teachers.
Since early 2007, the AVJ school has run a hot lunch program staffed by volunteers, including mostly parents of the students, who cook and serve 150 hot meals and clean drinking water every day. Most of the students do not eat enough at home, and before the food program began, they used to constantly complain about their hunger. Now, they no longer have to worry about their empty bellies and can focus on learning.
There are no parks or public plazas in Jakè, making it difficult to hold assembly meetings and other activities. In May 2007, AVJ transformed a dirt-floored alleyway known as Baz Kenep into a mini-plaza, laying down concrete, painting the walls and creating a small stage. Since then, AVJ has used Baz Kenep to hold assembly meetings, organize teacher-parent conferences, give free concerts and offer public screenings of movies.
In May 2007, more than 20 members of AVJ participated in a three-day seminar given by an agronomist to promote the creation of a community garden. There is little arable land left in Jakè, so they began by planting in a neighbor’s backyard. If this pilot project is successful, they hope to convince the owner of a larger vacant lot in the neighborhood to allow them to use his land for a garden that would produce vegetables for the AVJ school’s lunch program.
