Cotonou – Whether it’s asking parents to let their daughters finish secondary school, allowing girls to have access to vocational training or the importance of letting women use modern contraceptive methods, motorbike taxi drivers will be zipping across Benin this month with some new slogans emblazoned on their jackets, as part of the latest SWEDD outreach campaign to promote women empowerement. 

Motorbike taxi drivers, commonly known as ‘Zémidjan’, are renowned for their crucial role in disseminating information in Benin. This month in Parakou, more than a thousand motorbike taxi drivers gathered alongside the Minister of Social Affairs and Microfinance, Véronique Tognifodé, to officially launch the mobile awareness campaign.

The ceremony saw a see of two-wheeler drivers dressed in yellow jackets, bearing the SWEDD awareness-raising messages, set off from Parakou's Place Tabéra to widely disseminate key messages to their cmlients and all who cross paths with them, on empowering women and girls, keeping girls in school, and improving the life skills and sexual and reproductive health of out-of-school and out-of-school adolescent girls aged 10 to 24.

Together, let's change mindsets, one journey at a time!

In her speech to the motorbike taxi drivers, Minister Véronique TOGNIFODE stressed their importance in achieving the project's objectives. She said the Government was committed to enabling every girl and woman to be self-sufficient and fulfilled, thereby improving people's living conditions.

The spokesman for the motorbike taxi drivers expressed his gratitude to the Government and the SWEDD project, affirming their commitment to this mission aimed at social and behavioural change affecting all communities.

After Parakou, motorbike taxi drivers in the commune of Athiémé were given the same mass awareness-raising mission, at a ceremony at the Zounhouè bus station. Motorbike taxi drivers in Djougou, in the Donga department, are also on a mission to raise awareness among their customers, their entourage and their immediate environment about the determinants of the empowerment and protection of adolescent girls and women. The next stages of this campaign will involve the communes of Kandi, Djougou and Natitingou in the North zone.