Activities
Promoting higher incomes and food security: HEKS/EPER promotes high value-added agriculture. This includes, for example fruit and vegetable cultivation and the keeping of small animals. It also entails processing and marketing products so as to boost earnings, which in turn enable communities and producer groups to invest in processing and refining their products. Parent committees are also able to help fund the schools they support with HEKS/EPER assistance, thereby providing access for their children to education.
Upgrading rural infrastructure: To help communities living in the difficult-to-access mountain areas of Grand'Anse find a way out of their isolation and gain better access to basic services, HEKS/EPER assists them in upgrading rural infrastructure such as roads, markets and schools. To ensure that infrastructure is maintained and that schools keep functioning, local community structures are mobilized and strengthened and specific training is provided.
More dialogue between rural communities and local authorities: To place the local people in a better position to claim their rights, HEKS/EPER encourages dialogue between rural communities and local authorities. In this way, our Country Programme makes rural communities and authorities central to local development, thus helping to bring about greater transparency in the management of resources.
