A white house with ragged walls, its stairs and balconies hanging in tatters and a cheeky blue sky filtering over it. A man rushes out of the groves below and calls out to us. Elias lives alone under the trees with his cows. At the foot of his ruins, he mourns his wife and fils who died in the earthquake on the night of 6 February in his village of Kelmakho overlooking the coast of Lattakia, Syria. Because of the sharp devaluation of the Syrian currency, we give him a kilo of banknotes (200 euros...). Enough to live on for a month or two. With his hand on his heart, Elias blesses the occupants of this car who have come to counter the curse.
At each crossroads, behind each pile of ruins indicated by the villagers, by our local team, we targeted and distributed our donors' support to 250 families in the epicentre of the earthquake, in north-west Syria. It is little consolation when you have lost everything, especially your loved ones... But a real blessing when you have received nothing... A feeling of abandonment shared by everyone in Syria.
By adapting to the crying Syrian misery caused by the closure of international borders, we continue our action. In the villages whose schools have been destroyed, we are going to create school reinforcement centres, while the state repairs the buildings.
On the other side of the border, the descent into hell of the Lebanese, caused by the negligence of their decision-makers, is so dizzying that it borders on the absurd. For the past four years, the financial crisis has led to a sharp devaluation of the currency and a 200% inflation in March alone... Today, chronic illnesses are no longer treated in hospitals for lack of medicine; teachers refuse to go to work for lack of petrol; families can no longer feed their children for lack of money. And, as in Syria, the young brains are all leaving, especially for Europe, leaving their land to the ignorant.
In the East, our future is dark," worry the Lebanese and Syrians. We are in a tunnel from which we cannot see the way out. The dramas, however, have followed one another in this part of the world over the centuries. But never before have these peoples had this feeling of third worldization, when their only resources come from humanitarian aid and the diaspora.
Dear friends, the assistance that Mission Enfance provides, thanks to you, to the families of the East and of the world, is certainly only a drop of water. Distributed with parsimony, it materializes hope. There, it is not an empty word. So, as long as there are men, women and children...
Domitille Lagourgue
Director of Mission Enfance
LAOS
© Mission Enfance : Education in a decent building - Veune Khène School 2022
Laos' years of closure during the Covid epidemic had a profound effect on its economy. Many Laotians left to look for work in Thailand, and students were no longer able to finance their studies and food. Non-tenured teachers also left the country to find a salary elsewhere. In this country, one of the poorest in the world, survival is becoming a daily preoccupation.
Education is the keystone of Laos. In 2023, on the Boloven plateau, in the south of Laos, we will be building two primary schools in Bane Lao and Phou Dinh Deng. In order to bring education closer to the most remote areas. We will also be building and equipping a computer centre in Phou Mone high school so that pupils, who are too far from the towns learn a trade. Each of our projects is accompanied by the distribution of hygiene and school kits to the children and food donations to the teachers.
LEBANON
When a father's salary is only enough to buy his children's daily bread, how can he pay for rent, school, electricity, gas and healthcare? The apocalypse of Lebanon and its people continues without a glance from its political class.
Through our schools and care centres, Mission Enfance substitutes for a failing and corrupt state to ensure the survival of 1,500 Lebanese children and their families every month:
financing of schooling, remedial classes to compensate for school closures, teachers' salaries, payment of electricity and generator bills, distribution of food vouchers to families. School sponsorship is also a blessing for Lebanese children.
ARMENIA
The last few months have been another painful one for Armenia. Sandwiched between Turkey and Azerbaijan, this small Christian country of 3 million souls is under violent pressure from its neighbours. Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave attached to Azerbaijan by Stalin, has been under an Azeri blockade since last December. No goods can enter this region.
In this context, during each of our emergency actions, particular attention is given to families from Karabakh living in Armenia. Many of our sponsored children go to school thanks to the ongoing support of their godparents. In our Endanik centre in Gyumri, young craftsmen receive training in setting up businesses so that they can make a profit from their work. so that they can put their talents to good use.
ETHIOPIA
One of the poorest countries in Africa, half of its 77 million people live below the poverty line. The two-year conflict between the regional government of Tigray and the federal government of Ethiopia has been extremely violent and has spilled over into many parts of the country.
Isolated in one of the hottest deserts on the planet, in eastern Ethiopia, the Afar people have also borne many of the displaced from the conflit. In our Educational Awakening Centre in Assayta, where our local team is financed by Mission Enfance, the pupils follow, despite everything, their schooling in a serene atmosphere.
IRAQI KURDISTAN
In the north of the country, in Kurdistan, the region that received all the Iraqi displaced persons fleeing the atrocities of the Islamic State in 2014, the political and, consequently, economic situation is once again very sensitive for the indigenous population. In this context, our support to displaced families is more than necessary.
Mission Enfance supports the school it has created in the Yezidi displaced persons camp of Sharya. 600 students receive an education there every year. Chaldean and Yezidi female students continue their university studies in Mosul and Qaraqosh thanks to our support. In addition, a school for 1,000 displaced children is being built in the village of Itout by our local team.
COLOMBIA
Violence, linked to the economic and affective poverty of adults, alcoholism, drug trafficking, forced displacement as a result of armed conflict - these are just some of the reasons why Mission Enfance has set up toy libraries to protect children at risk.
In Colombia, our 6 toy libraries welcome over 13,000 children of all ages every year.
Through our psychomotor activities, observation, welcoming and listening to children, they learn about their rights and develop in a serene environment. They become socialised and build their future. Wherever they are, in Bogotá, La Uvita, Cüsagui, Condoto or in the meanders of the Amazon River, children receive a fun and educational education thanks to our mobile toy libraries. School results are better, thanks to the calming and open-mindedness, leading to better integration into Colombian society.
BURKINA FASO
2 million people have fled the massacres perpetrated by jihadists and terrorists in the north of the country. Disorientated by the violence they have suffered and their uprooting, the arrival of families in the camps is a tragedy.
To counter these difficulties, Mission Enfance, in conjunction with our local partner Terre Verte, is building boreholes and drinking water wells in 12 host villages. This will enable the displaced people to cultivate land and resume a normal life.
life. In addition to these boreholes, we are going to build a school and support agricultural projects on a pilot farm in Filly, in the Oula Department, in the north of Burkina Faso. These actions will ensure that the farmers and their children are self-sufficient in food. Similarly, our young people are able to attend school and university their schooling and university thanks to their sponsors.
The promise of water when we drill in desert areas
When there's water, a village comes back to life!
After the visit from the dentists, 5,800 pupils from the province of of Oubritenga received a dental kit (toothbrush, toothpaste)
AFGHANISTAN
A battered country, a cursed country, Afghanistan is suffering the wrath of its tâlib government as much as that of the natural elements during the earthquake in March. Fear dominates the population. Young girls and women, excluded from Afghan society, are hoping in their homes for leniency from their tormentors.
Our paediatrician (authorised by the Taliban to practise her profession in the face of the health emergency) feeds 35 babies every day in her dispensary.
We are about to start building a new primary school in Mazar-e-Sharif, in the north of the country.
SYRIA
A 12-year war, an earthquake that destroyed the north-west of the country, an entire population euphemistically declaring "we're not doing well".... 80% of the Syrian people live below the poverty line under the governance of a desperate authoritarian regime. Mission Enfance has just personally distributed €200 to 250 families affected by the earthquake. Enough to repair the cracks in their houses or to live on for two months...With many schools destroyed in the villages, we are going to set up school support centres for the children while the state repairs the buildings. We are still supporting the education of 700 children in our three educational centres in Homs and Lattakie, as well as the Al Farj high school in Damascus.
SPONSORSHIP
Today, school sponsorship is a matter of survival for thousands of children around the world. In Armenia, Lebanon, Vietnam and Burkina Faso, the cost of living and school fees are rising abysmally in all the countries where we are active. Despite their best efforts, parents can no longer afford to bring up or even feed their children. School sponsorship becomes their last hope for a dignified life.
Marie Vauban, our sponsorship manager, says: "During my missions in the field, I meet these survivors of life. I remember Huynh Diem My in particular. This young Vietnamese girl of 12, from a particularly deprived background, was rescued at the last minute by the Filles de la Charité, before she plunged into prostitution to help her family survive. Today, thanks to the generosity of her godmother, she is back at school in one of our schools in Saigon! In Lebanon, I haven't forgotten this young 20-year-old student called Rabieh. It was impossible for him to continue his studies in Beirut, as university loans have become unaffordable since his country's economic crisis. His godfather decided to support his godson's studies. He is now in his third year of medical studies.
On the one hand, the extreme poverty that paralyses these young people at the start of their lives, and on the other, the immense generosity of the sponsors, who are well aware that without them, none of these young people would have a decent future. In the middle is Mission Enfance, which manages the link between these children and their godparents.
Meeting your sponsored children
FINANCIAL REPORT - YEAR 2021
Certified by our auditor, Mrs Janin-Ragazzoni, from KPMG-GLD et Associés, at our General Meeting on 15 June 2022. Thanks to the support of the Government of Monaco and our patrons (Mr and Mrs C. Rhodius, Mr and Mrs M. Landeau), only 0.18% of your donation was spent on the running costs of the association's head office. We would like to thank them:
H.S.H. Prince Albert II, Mrs P. Husson, Mr R. Levy, Mr B. Alkazzi, CMB Monaco, Mr and Mrs B. Ruiz-Picasso, Mr S. Traboulsi, Mr and Mrs N. Kairis, Countess D. Memmo d'Amelio, Mr and Mrs J. McLoughlin, Mr and Mrs M. Bouygues, Mr J. M. Radziwill, Mr A. Demirdjian, Mr P. Green, Jutheau Husson Monaco (Mr H. Husson), Les fondations Alexis and Anne-Marie Habib Foundations. Entreprise Air France, Fidinam International, Fondation 21, Notre Dame/ Fondation Gabrielle, Walanpatrias, Morgana and the International Cooperation Department.
SOLIDARITY SHOP ON VINTED
On: https://www.vinted.fr/member/42322027-missionenfance-377 or directly at mission.enfance-377 on the Vinted app.
This second-hand clothing sale, organised by our volunteers, contributes to our container shipments and supports our programmes in Burkina Faso.
