Grégoire Ahongbonon (born 1953) founded the

St Camille Association St Camille Association or Association Saint-Camille de Lellis was founded in 1994 by Grégoire Ahongbonon to provide residential care for people in West Africa with mental illness. History Ahongbonon was born in Benin and immigrated to Ivory Coast ...

in 1994 to provide residential care for people in

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

suffering from mental illness.

Biography

Ahongbonon was born in

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...

and immigrated to Côte d'Ivoire. Ahongbonon was formerly a

mechanic A mechanic is an artisan, skilled tradesperson, or technician who uses tools to build, maintain, or repair machinery, especially cars. Duties Most mechanics specialize in a particular field, such as auto body mechanics, air conditioning and r ...

. He was inspired to start the association following experiencing depression himself, which led him to consider suicide. He is quoted as saying "As long as there is one man in chains, it is humanity who is chained." Ahongbonon won the

Daily Trust Media Trust is a privately held Nigerian newspaper publishing company based in Abuja that publishes the English-language ''Daily Trust'', ''Weekly Trust'', ''Sunday Trust'' and the Hausa-language ''Aminiya'' newspapers, as well as a new pan-Afric ...

African of the Year 2015, which included a $50,000 prize. In 2020 he won the Dr. Guislain Award, attributed by the Guislain Institute (Brothers of Charity) and Johnson & Johnson - dr. Janssen. ''Grégoire Ahongbonon wins the 2020 Dr. Guislain Award'', in:Deus Caritas est, december 2020.

Literature

* Adjovi, Laeila, ''Gregoire Ahongbonon: Freeing people chained for being ill'', (BBC, 17 February 2016), * ''Nigeria: I've Treated 60,000 Mentally-Ill - Ahongbonon - allAfrica.com'', in: allafrica.com, 2016. * ''Grégoire Ahongbonon wins the 2020 Dr. Guislain Award 2020'', in: Deus Caritas Est, december 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahongbonon, Gregoire 1953 births Living people Beninese emigrants to Ivory Coast Place of birth missing (living people) Date of birth missing (living people)