The Tuo Fozié Civic Service Center in Bouaké hosted the official launch ceremony for 650 young volunteers on Monday, April 7, 2025. This event marked the beginning of an intensive civic and professional training program. The cohort includes 500 young men welcomed at the Tuo Fozié Civic Service Center and 150 young women trained at the Bouaké 1 Civic Service Center. Aged between 16 and 35, these youth were carefully selected to benefit from this ambitious initiative aimed at facilitating their social and professional integration.

The six-month program is structured into two complementary phases. The first phase, focused on resocialization, spans two months and features a military-style supervision approach. It aims to instill core values such as discipline, civic responsibility, and active citizenship. The second phase, lasting four months, offers vocational training in promising sectors such as construction and public works, metal construction, agropastoral activities, landscaping, tailoring, auto-motor mechanics, security, beauty and hairdressing, culinary arts and pastry, farming, and animal husbandry.

Present at the ceremony, the Director General of the National Civic Service Office (OSCN), Amara Coulibaly, highlighted the importance of the Civic Service for Development initiative. This program is designed to provide vulnerable youth not only with strong technical skills but also with the core values needed for active and responsible citizenship. He emphasized the program’s main goals: to bring lasting behavioral change and strengthen beneficiaries’ employability through training that is well adapted to the demands of the job market.

This initiative fully aligns with the Ivorian government’s ongoing efforts to empower youth, enhance their employability, and ensure their sustainable integration into the national socio-economic fabric.

The ceremony was held under the authority of the Minister-Governor of the Autonomous District of the Vallée du Bandama, represented by his Chief of Staff, Assamoi Stéphane Yapo. He conveyed congratulations and encouragements from Minister Jean Claude Kouassi, emphasizing the program’s civic, social, and economic significance for the youth in the district.

For his part, the Prefect of the Gbêkê region and the department of Bouaké, Tuo Fozié, after whom the center is named, praised the commitment of the young volunteers and urged them to show determination and discipline in order to successfully complete their reintegration process. As a gesture of support, he donated two tons of rice to the two centers and offered a cash envelope of 200,000 FCFA to support the supervising staff.