SUMMER CAMP — CDC Bénin and EPITECH's Inclusive Digital-Careers Training for Blind and Low-Vision Youth

In September 2024, CDC Bénin — the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, acting in its role as a socially responsible investor — funded a one-week digital-careers 'Summer Camp' for 100 young people from the Centre de Promotion Sociale des Aveugles et Amblyopes (CPSAA) of Sègbèya and the Foyer Laura Vicuna children's home in Zogbo, Cotonou. The training was delivered by EPITECH Bénin, a private computer-science school.
Over one week, participants — most of them blind or low-vision — covered the basics of programming, robotics and web and mobile application development. The organisers describe an inclusive approach that let each participant progress according to their own abilities, with support adapted to the specific challenges faced by non-sighted learners.
A public restitution ceremony was held on 14 September 2024 with CDC Bénin's director-general Maryse Lokossou and EPITECH Bénin's director-general Johanne Bruffaerts, alongside representatives of Benin's Ministry of Social Affairs and Microfinance and the digital-government agency ASIN, who used the event to discuss extending social- and digital-inclusion cooperation.
The programme is documented as a single one-week cohort rather than an established recurring curriculum, and the only public account so far is the funder's own announcement: no independent evaluation of participants' subsequent employment, further training or continued digital use has been published, so long-term learning outcomes and sustainability remain unverified.

Read the full analysis: https://www.cdcb.bj/Actualites-56