ABSTRACT
Benin is a small West African country, surrounded by Nigeria in the east, Togo in the west, Niger in the northwest, Burkina Faso in the north, and the Gulf of Guinea in the south. It was a former colony of France, and it became independent on August 1, 1960. It covers an area of 112,600 square kilometers, with a population estimated at 60 million inhabitants (by the census of 2000), including 52 percent women, 48 percent men, and 49.2 percent young people below 15 years of age. About 70 percent of the population live in the rural areas and mainly carry out subsistence farming. In 2001, the rate of illiteracy and the percentage of children in full-time education were 35 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
