[Child to child]

The story of a seven year-old handicapped girl, unhappy and isolated, who--with the help of school children from her village, one in particular who was also disabled--can now go to school and become increasingly autonomous, provides a better understanding of the CHILD-to-child (Ctc) programme. Ctc uses an active approach which through questionnaires, stories, games, and discussions progresses toward a concrete activity which is accomplished at first in groups (such as in class, or scout camps, youth groups, etc. for those who do not attend school). The activities are then extended to the community at large. The basic pedagogic document, an activity sheet, written in simple French with many illustrations, follows a simple and standard sequence: goals of the activities, main ideas, activities, and evaluation of results. Although simplistic in appearance, the appropriate conception of such a tool is not easy. The subject matter varies among: knowledge and prevention of illnesses, hygiene, environment... Before the final editing, each activity sheet is discussed with people in the field, and tested on a group of children who are participating in similar workshops. As appropriate use of the activity sheets requires familiarity with active pedagogy, training seminars are given to educators prior to the introduction of the Ctc programmes in the field. The first two introductory seminars were held in Benin and Burkina Faso with others planned for the coming months. Other training workshops are foreseen in the near future for Togo, Niger, and Senegal. Although the introduction of the CHILD-to-child programme is still very new in francophone countries, some conclusions from the experience can be drawn.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)