The Project in Brief

I would like to create social, cultural and educational itinerant workshops for children in rural areas in the south east of France. The objective of the project is to give to as many people as possible access to culture and education by offering several workshops:
• Philosophical debate workshops to develop children's critical thinking and their capacity for discernment, while transmitting to them essential values, such as respect, tolerance, and kindness.
• art & creative expression workshops to give children a safe and completely free way to express themselves, for example to teach children to identify and manage their emotions.
• Scientific workshops on the theme of sustainable development, protection of the environment and biodiversity.
These workshops aim to bring light to children, the light of knowledge but also of well-being by putting sun in children's heads. These workshops will therefore be organized around the ILANGA-BUS, a truck that can go from village to village, from place to place, with everything necessary on board to run the workshops but also a library and a toy library made up of games on the theme of mutual aid, sharing, ecology and sustainable development.

A word for you!

I need your help to start this project!! A project which itself will help the individual as well as the community. I need your help to reach out humanity, the humanity that still exists in the hearts of our children and in the hearts of all of us. This humanity which implies respect for others but also respect for our environment and this nature that we must protect. This humanity must be preserved, cherished and made to grow. It is indeed essential at the present time to teach the adults of tomorrow to know how to BE and to live together.
Everyone has to do its part, so here is mine: I want to create intinerant workshops for children in rural areas. As described above, these are workshops for philosophical debates (as practiced and taught by the philosopher Frédéric Lenoir). They are also art and creative expression workshops and scientific workshops about protection of the environment and biodiversity.
I am convinced that through culture and education we can give children essential keys to become conscious, active, enlightened and respectful citizens. To give them the keys to shape the world of tomorrow.
If you too want to do your part and work for a better and caring world, then support this project and help me launch these social, cultural and educational workshops!

origins of the project

I am Axelle Bono, originally from the "Alpes de Hautes Provence", in love with nature, curious by nature and incurably optimistic.

Regarding my background, after obtaining a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's degree in biology, ethology and ecology, I obtained a PhD in biology, specializing in primatology which includes the study of animal and human behavior, cognition and evolution. I mainly studied social learning and the evolution of culture during my research work. My study model being wild vervet monkeys, I spent 4 years in South Africa to do my fieldwork, in a reserve. Following this experience in the scientific world, I am now looking to change my professional path.

During the period of my PhD, I carried out some interventions in rural schools (Kwazulu Natal, South Africa) on my own initiative. I have also done such interventions with children in a social center in Lausanne, Switzerland. The objective of these interventions was to create a link with the local populations in Africa, and also to explain our work as researchers and thus to be able to bring a different openness to the world and show that other futures are possible. Above all, the aim of these interventions was to sensitize the youngest to the importance of protecting biodiversity and the environment. I learned and received much more than what I gave in these exchanges, and it was enriching and memorable experiences. This is where this project began to bloom in my head.

Subsequently, I also became a philosophical workshop animator after completing the training offered by the SEVE association of philosopher Frédéric Lenoir. This training allowed me to acquire concrete tools to interact and communicate with children in all kindness, and mainly to transmit to children values that will contribute to the evolution of humanity towards a better world, with respect for others,and towards a better life together. I also took additional training and became animator of scientific and cultural workshops, and facilitator of art therapy workshops. This in order to provide others, and especially children, with knowledge, culture and values such as respect and "living together".

Today, I wish to be actively involved in the transmission of knowledge, the exchange and sharing of values, and to provide access to education and culture to the adults of tomorrow. I want to use my scientific background as well as my experiences around the globe (more than 50 countries lived or visited) to make myself useful and to do my part for a better world.

That is why today I am embarking on this project with all my heart and asking for your help for it, thus together we can get into action through this "ILANGA sun for all" project. “Ilanga” which in Zulu means “sun”. I sincerely want to work for something that seems to make a lot of sense and is essential these days!

ILANGA sun for everyone

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