St Monica is a support and transition farm for deaf and hearing-impaired young people to help them settle into their own farm, founded in 2019 with the support of The Ivory Foundation and since then managed by Dessine l’Espoir.
St Monica’s Farm is a continuation of the St Paul’s Educational Micro-Farm, supported by The Ivory Foundation. Together, these structures aim to give these young people the tools and means to overcome their disability in order to achieve a certain degree of professional and personal fulfilment.
In addition, Dessine l’Espoir has helped the young apprentices in St Monica to set up a local NGO, “Farming our future”, in order to ensure that the farm is managed by the beneficiaries, i.e. themselves. They are accompanied by a tutor, who is the former head of cultivation at St Paul’s school. He is not deaf and hard of hearing but knows sign language. The constitution of this local NGO makes it possible to avoid external control (school, bishopric) so that the young people can truly achieve the desired autonomy.