In Atacora, a particularly poor region in northern Benin, Louvain Coopération has developed an integrated project combining food security and access to healthcare. For families with low and irregular incomes, even a minor health problem can turn into a disaster. To treat one of their own, families have to make significant sacrifices, even selling their entire year's harvest and going without food themselves. Louvain Coopération is therefore fighting on two fronts: access to healthcare through mutual health insurance schemes and food security through support for agriculture and micro-enterprises.
Thanks to this project, women in particular can develop their small businesses by producing and selling foodstuffs. Part of this income is reinvested in contributions to a mutual health insurance scheme. These families are then better equipped to combat poverty and disease.