SHARING KNOWLEDGE
1. Construction of the Manoré Nursery School
Thanks to the support of the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation, Manoré already has a primary school and the commitment of a director who provides all the courses.
In 2018, Espace Culturel Gacha is funding the creation of a new building for the Manorénursery school in Cameroon, located in a relatively isolated area where educational facilities are lacking. The Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation is the contracting authority of this infrastructure and ensures the link with the population for the proper appropriation of this new equipment.
The investment of the Espace Culturel Gacha should allow the construction of a new building for the kindergartens which until now used to meet under the shade of a tree to receive their lessons.
In September 2018, it is in a brand new building built for them that the kindergarten pupils of Manoré were able to go back to school. The inauguration took place in the presence of the families and the team of the Fondation Jean-Félicien Gacha and the Espace Culturel Gacha.
2. Residence for training in documentary cinema
In 2018, the Espace Culturel Gacha, alongside the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation, is hosting a two-month artistic residency in Bangoulap, Cameroon, focusing on raising intercultural awareness, offered by filmmaker Jean-Marie Teno to 8 young Cameroonians. This second edition of a training workshop in documentary cinema under the theme « Heritage and Colonial History« , will be held from 23 September to 17 November 2018.
The Espace Culturel Gacha is thus associated with the Goethe Institute of Cameroon, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie aux Films du Raphia and of course the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation. One of the objectives is the training of young Cameroonians in documentary cinema, so that they can mobilize these skills for the preservation of their heritage and more broadly within the framework of audiovisual projects on human and societal issues that concern them.
The 2018 promotion of Jean-Marie Teno’s trainees at work at the Jean-Félicien GachaFoundation.
DEVELOPING SOFT SKILLS
3. Training volunteers with the Association AGIR abcd
Alongside the ESPACE CULTUREL GACHA,the charity AGIR abcd supports volunteering missions at the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation, by putting us in touch with retired professionals wishing to share their professional experiences. In 2018, L’Espace is organising the training and intervention of two AGIR volunteers. During these missions, the Foundation in Cameroon supervises, welcomes, hosts and supplies the equipment necessary for the implementation of the mission in order to allow the volunteers – and the public to whom the missions are addressed – to carry out their activities in the best conditions.
4. Herbal Tea Project with the Antenna Foundation
In 2018, in collaboration with the Antenna Scientific Foundation, the Espace Culturel Gachais implementing the « Herbal Tea » project. The objective is to develop a responsible product, highlighting the medicinal potential of the plants cultivated in the Botanical Garden of the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation.
Benjamin Campaore is in charge of the laboratory of the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation where the Herbal Tea project is being developed.
The Espace Culturel Gacha in France is the place and the main actor in disseminating these results, promoting both the heritage of the local flora while giving the surrounding populations the possibility of treating themselves with natural medicine connected to traditions.
Work meeting during a visit by part of the Swiss Antenna Foundation team to the Foundation’s site in October 2018.
Hibiscus flower, one of the plants grown in the Foundation’s garden, in the hands of Benjamin Campaore.
ENCOURAGING KNOW-HOW
5. Participation in the 13th Dakar Biennale
The Espace Culturel Gacha encourages intercultural understanding, through the organisation of participation in events contributing to the promotion of African artistic and craft skills. In 2018, the Espace Culturel Gacha inaugurates the series of « heritage » exhibitions, which unveil the results of encounters between African know-how promoted at the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation and contemporary creators. The first Legacies stage is held in Senegal, during the 13th Biennial of Dakar. A selection of works by artists fromFoundation or who have been in residence is presented. They have in common to take the ceremonial fabric Ndop as their inspiration.
The teams from Espace Culturel Gacha and the Jean-Félicien Gacha Foundation have come together for the occasion for this exhibition which they have organized together.
