Didier Drogba: Chelsea legend and his foundation opens first school in Cote D'Ivoire

The school has six classrooms, a kindergarten class, a school canteen, school latrines, a football field.

Chelsea legend Didier Drogba has launched his first school in his home country Cote D'Ivoire through his Didier Drogba Foundation (DDF) with support from Nestlé and International Cocoa Initiative (ICI).

Children in Pokou-Kouamekro, Côte d’Ivoire will no doubt be sporting huge smiles in 2017 with the launch of this school.

The school built by the DDF will give 350 children the access to quality education in the rural cocoa growing community of Pokou-Kouamekro.

This will decrease the risk of them engaging in child labour on cocoa farms.

DDF get support

For this project, the DDF was supported by Nestlé and the ICI.

The DDF, Nestlé and ICI share the common objective of helping children live healthier lives and helping develop thriving resilient communities.

Like any public school, the Didier Drogba school will be handed to the government to run.

“The idea is to address the acute shortage of educational facilities in the rural areas of Côte d’Ivoire where children often have to walk several kilometres to the nearest school,” DDF said in a statement. 

“There was already an existing school, but this was made of mud and didn’t have the requisite infrastructure to facilitate learning. The community now welcomes a life-changing opportunity of having a new school built with facilities to aid learning.”

 

The school has six classrooms, a kindergarten class, a school canteen, school latrines, a football field and 3 teachers’ homes to attract qualified teachers.

The new school will contribute to the physical, social and academic performance of the children in the village of Pokou-Kouamekro.

“Didier Drogba strongly believes that education is important for the physical and mental development of children, and the support of international companies like Nestlé, to our action, will help make these communities a better place,” the Cote D'Ivoire legend said in the statement.

 “We have been working on this project for the last two years and I am very proud to see it completed. The belief of my foundation has always been if we give children access to health and education, we will build future generations of doctors, scientists, businessmen and women and that is how we build a better Africa.

“When I started working with Nestlé. I explained our vision and they have given us great logistical help and support on the ground to make the construction of this school a reality.”

Nestlé

Stanislas Guedj who is the Country Manager for Nestlé Côte d’Ivoire said they are pleased to collaborate with the foundation.

“The Didier Drogba Foundation promotes education, sustainability and sports, as a means to help children have a brighter future Nestlé is tackling child labour by building educational infrastructure,” Guedj said in the statement.

“It is an important asset to building resilient and thriving cocoa growing communities as well as eradicating child labour. Every child’s place is in school.”

International Cocoa Initiative

For ICI, tackling child labour in cocoa-farming communities remains the commitment.

“With Nestlé, ICI is strongly committed to providing a lasting change because we believe that every child deserves the chance to create its own future,” Euphrasie Aka, Regional Representative for West and Central Africa for ICI added.

The DDF was launched in 2009.