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Former Combatants in Côte d'Ivoire
Trained and Reintegrated
Participants in OIC Côte d’Ivoire's rehabilitation project tend to crops during a vegetable production course.
In a nation wracked by conflict for much of this decade, OIC International’s Côte d’Ivoire affiliate is taking the lead in a program to train and reintegrate former rebel combatants and youth involved in the civil crisis into daily life and to strengthen the capacity of host communities to receive them.
“The project, not yet a year old, has achieved 93 percent success,” noted Kassi Elia, executive director of OIC-Côte d’Ivoire, who also serves as coordinator of the socio-economic reintegration project. “More than 650 of the 700 selected beneficiaries from the cities of Bouaké and Katiola have been rehabilitated and placed in jobs or helped to establish their own businesses,” he said, pointing to two examples to illustrate the program’s achievements –
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One ex-combatant, now owner of a motorcycle taxi service, proudly tells of his ability to be “the man in his family,” able to provide money each day for his wife and two children.
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A 21-year-old female ex-combatant, five months pregnant when she joined the reintegration project early this year and determined to abort the child due to financial difficulties, received psychological counseling as part of the project, and decided to carry the baby to term. “She is now settled and operating a fabric shop in Bouaké,” Elia added.
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 Former combatants attend a shopkeeping course as part of OIC Côte d’Ivoire's rehabilitation program.
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OIC-Côte d’Ivoire’s training contract, provided by the United Nations Program for Development under a grant from the French Cooperation Fund, utilizes its existing training and resettlement model. “But,” Elia explained, “it also provides psychological and trauma counseling needed because of the effects of the conflict on so many of the beneficiaries.” The project is under the supervision of Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training and the Development Fund for Vocational Training.
The program’s remarkable success to date is due to the quality of the training beneficiaries receive in agriculture, livestock, management of micro-enterprises and functional literacy. Elia points to beneficiaries’ successful careers in food and vegetable production, livestock rearing, taxi service, and retail sales as further evidence of the training’s excellence.
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