Yendouban Yentchale is a Project Coordinator for the Youth Awake Association and a consultant-facilitator in business development, entrepreneurship, value chain development, and agricultural contracting. He has led several projects with partners such as USAID, U.S. Department of State, ​​European Union, UNFPA and UNICEF. Yendouban specializes in in mobilizing young people around citizen engagement and participation, prevention and fight against violent extremism and protection of environment. He obtained his Agricultural Engineering Diploma from the National Agricultural Training Institute of Tové. Yendouban also studied in the Faculty of Economics and Management at Kara University.  

IVLP Impact Award Project: The Youth Voice in the Fight Against Climate Changes by the Promotion of the School Arboretums and the Citizen Engagement and in Schools in the Tone 1 and Cinkassé 2 Commune in Togo

This project emphasizes the promotion of school arboretums as sanctuaries or potential shelters of the reconstitution of both plant and animal biodiversity. The project disseminates good attitudes of environmental safeguards in the community, creates environment clubs in schools centered on active citizenship and volunteering, and generates multi-purpose arboretums and school botanical gardens. By fostering the culture and spirit of volunteering and citizen engagement among students from a young age, this project will contribute to the socioecological resilience of communities against climate change. 

The first phase of the project raised awareness across five schools, educating about 2,100 students, teachers, and community members on environmental protection and climate change resilience. Yendouban held a capacity-building workshop for 15 biology, agriculture, and geography teachers, emphasizing their role in promoting environmental stewardship among students and collaborating with local communities and development committees. The training covered biodiversity management, sustainable development goals, and school-based reforestation techniques.

In the coming months, the project will focus on land preparation, including cleaning, demarcation, and hole-making across five schools, with active community participation. They purchased 2,500 fast-growing, multi-use plants for reforestation, supported by experts and local stakeholders. Reforestation efforts engage school populations, teachers, and communities, developing school plots into arboretums with targeted species for each site. As Yendouban stated, the project is “aimed to reinforce the values of volunteerism among young people and to generate in them more commitment to community civic actions.”

“The awakening of eco-citizenship conscience among students [will] instill new relationships and behaviors among young people.” - Yendouban Yentchale

IVLP Exchange Experience   

Yendouban participated in the IVLP Project Youth and Civic Engagement organized by the U.S. Department of State and Meridian International Center, in partnership with WorldBoston, International House, Global Ties Akron, and WorldOrlando. 

Yendouban's exchange experience led to the development of his project: “I learned a lot of lessons, and I was very impressed by how these young people contribute to the development of poor communities from a young age voluntarily.” 

“Many prominent facts caught my attention during my visit to the United States for the IVLP program, notably the development of volunteering as a means of civic and community engagement for young people."-  Yendouban Yentchale

U.S. Communities Visited   

Washington DC; Orlando, FL; Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Akron OH

Country: Togo 

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