Benin is another African country with serious issues for
its population but with no real volunteer work sector at
the present time. It would be great to believe that's
because it doesn't need one, but that's not the case as
Benin is one of the world's poorest countries. With a life expectancy of just 61.47 years, half of the
population live on less than 60p a day and just under a
third of children are clinically malnourished. Benin is
in 158th place out of 186 countries and territories in
2019 when ranked in terms of life expectancy, literacy,
access to knowledge and the living standards of a
country.
The greatest danger to children in Benin is not lack of food, its the flourishing child trafficking trade in which tens of thousands of children, mostly girls, are taken and sold to neighbouring countries for domestic servitude, working in the fields, selling goods on the street or working in quarries. This trade is facilitated by the fact that 40% of all children in
Benin have no birth certificate so they are simply not asked for
documents when crossing borders.
Volunteer work in Benin often focuses on health, education and orphans. Health, because there is often one doctor for every one hundred thousand patients and over 10% of all children die before their fifth birthday through health related issues;
orphanages because 42,000 children have been orphaned through HIV/AIDS. Please note that many volunteer opportunities in Benin were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic which led to the permanent closure of some volunteer opportunities and restrictions on others. Hopefully things are now beginning to return to normal. If you run or
know of a volunteer work project in Benin let us know by
contacting us here. We look forward
to hearing from you!
Volunteer Work Benin: Build a Better Benin
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Volunteer Work Benin: Hands Around The World
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Volunteer Work Benin: Red Cross Benin
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Volunteer Work Benin: SYTO Benin
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