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 shutdown during the Covid epidemic profoundly disrupted its economy. Many Laotians left to find work in Thailand, as students could no longer 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 a daily concern.
Education is the keystone of Laos. In 2023, on the Boloven plateau in southern Laos, we will build two primary schools in Bane Lao and Phou Dinh Deng. This will bring education closer to the most remote areas. Similarly, we will build and equip a computer centre in the high school of Phou Mone so that the pupils, who are too far from the towns, can train for a trade. Each of our projects is accompanied by the distribution of hygiene and school kits to children and food donations to teachers.
LEBANON
When a father's salary only allows him to buy his children's daily bread, how can he pay the rent, the school, the electricity, the gas, the health? The apocalypse of Lebanon and its people continues without a glance from its political class.
Through our schools and reception centres, Mission Enfance replaces a failing and corrupt state to ensure the survival of 1,500 Lebanese children and their families each month: financing schooling, reinforcement courses 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 the 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, special attention is given to the reception of destitute families from Karabagh living on the territory of Armenia. Many filleuls attend school thanks to the permanent support of their sponsors. In our Endanik centre in Gyumri, young craftsmen are trained in business creation so as to make their talents bear fruit.
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.
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.