Hello West Africa is led by two founders
whose expertise, credentials, and personal history
in Benin are the business itself.
This isn't a company dreamed up from afar.
It is the culmination of nearly two decades of living, working, raising a family, conducting doctoral research, and building community in Benin
…formalized into the experience it was always becoming.
Hello West Africa is led by us,
Thomas D'Aquin and Debra Kouda
We are both Beninese American, partners in life and in this work.
Thomas D’Aquin was born and raised in Benin. Debra first came to
Debra first came in 2007 as a Peace Corps volunteer and has called it home ever since.
Between us, we've lived on both sides of the Atlantic.
We understand what it feels like to grow up inside a culture.
And what it feels like to arrive as an outsider.
Trying to learn the language, navigate the rhythms, and understand the unspoken rules.
That dual perspective is at the heart of everything we build.
Who We Are
Debra Kouda, EdD
Co-Founder & CEO
Before Benin came a deliberate choice.
Before Peace Corps, before Benin, Debra spent three years working professionally with cheetahs, big cats, and exotic wildlife across four institutions in the US and Africa: the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia, White Oak Conservation Center in Florida, the Cincinnati Zoo, and Wildlife Safari in Oregon. She knows exactly what the safari industry offers, and is building Hello West Africa as something intentionally, substantively different.
Hello West Africa's commitment to showing travelers that Africa is more than its animals is a position earned through direct experience, not ideology.
Peace Corps, Benin — 2007 to 2009
Debra was assigned to CPN les Papillons, an NGO running environmental education programs, a small inn and restaurant, and eco-tours for international visitors. She served as a guide, managed small-scale hospitality operations, designed and executed a donor-backed community sanitation project, and taught environmental education to more than 1,000 students across 18 schools. All in French.
The same NGO appears as a featured partner on Day 9 of the Hello West Africa flagship itinerary. The community relationships built in 2007 remain operationally central to every tour, 17 years later.
The research that became the product
Debra holds a Doctor of Education in Leadership and Innovation from Arizona State University (2025). Her doctoral dissertation was not theoretical. It was the design, implementation, and formal study of a transformative virtual cultural tour of Benin, conducted entirely online with real participants. The study demonstrated measurable shifts in perspectives, values, and behaviors consistent with Mezirow's transformative learning phases.
Her published work: Kouda, D. (2025). Transformative Learning through Virtual Tourism: Exploring West Africa in the Digital Space. Arizona State University. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
That research became the BRIDGE Framework, Hello West Africa's proprietary methodology for structuring cross-cultural experiences before, during, and after travel. If transformation is achievable virtually, the potential of an in-person immersive experience, in the actual country, with real families and real communities, is even greater. That is the promise Hello West Africa delivers on.
Operations & financial management
Debra's background isn't only academic. She has managed a $6 million federal grant program (Associate Director, Broadband Technology Opportunities Program), coordinated an international scientific conference with 400+ participants across multiple agencies, and worked as an adjunct professor, bringing curriculum design and facilitation expertise directly into the structure of every Hello West Africa tour.
She is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative University, a global network of social impact leaders and mission-aligned investors.
Languages: English (native), French (professional fluency), and Idaasha, the local language of the Kabole and Camaté-Shakaloke region.
Thomas D’Aquin Kouda
Co-Founder & Director of Operations
Thomas D'Aquin Kouda is a native of Camaté-Shakaloke, Benin. He grew up in the village, walked daily to his family's farm, and worked alongside his father in his photography business before the age of ten. He has spent his life building the kind of trust-based community network that no outside operator can replicate, because it was never built for a business; it was simply the way he grew up.
What he brings to every tour
Thomas provides access to partners, artisans, community leaders, nomadic peoples, local guides, and cultural practitioners that no outsider can approach cold. Many of the most memorable experiences on Hello West Africa tours happen not because they're on an itinerary — but because of relationships Thomas has been building for forty years.
He leads all in-country operations: logistics, vendor coordination, local staff management, and the on-the-ground problem-solving that keeps complex international travel running smoothly. More importantly, he serves as the cultural bridge — helping moments feel natural, respectful, and grounded.
His presence means guests aren't just visiting Benin. They're being welcomed into his community.
Building the foundation, literally
Thomas is a certified lumber grader, an active real estate investor and property operator in Benin, and the person directly overseeing construction of the guest bungalows at Kabole. His hands-on technical background is not a footnote — it is directly applicable to the quality and cost-control of the infrastructure that makes the Hello West Africa experience possible.
Languages: French (native), English, and Idaasha, plus working knowledge of additional Beninese languages.
How Hello West Africa Came to Be
Over the years, friends, family members, and colleagues kept asking the same question:
"Could we visit you in Benin?"
And when they did, something interesting happened.
The most meaningful moments weren't the famous sites or the planned activities. They were the everyday experiences: sitting in the shade talking with neighbors, walking through the village at dawn, visiting a farm, sharing a meal, asking questions that didn't have simple answers.
People didn't just enjoy Benin. They left changed by it.
Hello West Africa was created to make space for those kinds of experiences…intentionally.
The tour is built from the ground up using principles from transformational learning research, not to force change, but to create the conditions that allow it:
Preparation before arrival to build confidence and context
Time and space during the experience for genuine connection
Guided reflection along the way to deepen understanding
Ongoing community afterward to support integration
That's why our tours don't rush.
Why rest matters.
Why conversations matter.
Why small groups matter.
Why the relationship continues even after guests return home.
What makes us different
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Every tour is led personally by both of us from start to finish. While we work with trusted local guides for specific experiences, like visiting the hippos or exploring specialized sites, we are your primary guides throughout the journey, ensuring consistency, cultural depth, and genuine relationship-building.
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Most tour operators are either outsiders trying to access a culture or insiders without the framework to help outsiders navigate it. We are both at once. That combination is rare, and it makes a fundamental difference in the quality of every experience.
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Our property at Kabole has been in the family for generations. Thomas's mother lives there year-round. The families, vendors, artisans, guides, and NGO partners in our network have known us for 17 years. This community is not a backdrop, it is the product.
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The BRIDGE Framework (developed from Dr. Kouda's published doctoral research on transformative learning) provides our tours with a structured methodology that produces measurable shifts in perspective. Guests leave not just with memories, but also a transferable tool for lifelong cross-cultural understanding.
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Benin is a French-speaking country with limited English-language infrastructure. We remove that barrier entirely, so international travelers can engage fully, ask anything, and never feel like they're missing the conversation.
When you join a Hello West Africa tour, you're not just visiting a country.
You're being welcomed into a community, ours included, for twelve days and, if you choose, for a year beyond through our online community.
You're investing in an experience designed to shift perspective, build connection, and stay with you long after you return home.
If that feels like the kind of travel you're looking for, we'd love to meet you.
An Invitation
