(© Mission Enfance - Education, the last glimmer of hope for Ethiopia's children)
Dear friends,
Ermias, a young Ethiopian boy, lives in the dark: in the darkness of his filthy, muddy classroom, with its walls saturated with multi-colored sheets due to a lack of textbooks; in his mud house with its leprous partitions and no electricity. His future is so bleak that he often has only one hope: to join the mass of migrants, to cross the Red Sea, the war-torn Yemen, only to end up as a mistreated slave of a Saudi trader... One earns four times more as a shepherd in Saudi Arabia than as a teacher in Ethiopian schools.
The kingdom of Solomon, and his romance with the Queen of Sheba, are nothing more than a phantasmagorical spectre to the one hundred and twenty million Ethiopians, so proud of their history, that they are today so distraught by the unprecedented economic and political destabilisation of their country. More than half of Ethiopia's major regions are in conflict: in the north, the Tigrayans have still not admitted their defeat; in the central north, Amharas (Fano) militiamen, resisting the federal government's massacres, are cutting off access to the capital; in the east, the Afars are clashing with the Tigrayans and Issas; Oromo rebels are agitating on the country's borders; only the south enjoys relative calm, disturbed by incessant deadly ethnic skirmishes over land and resources.
These ongoing power struggles are hampering the development and, above all, the survival of the eighty or so ethnic groups that make up Abyssinia. Investors and tourists have deserted the country, causing foreign exchange to plummet. Drought and the blocking of gasoline and wheat subsidies are causing an abysmal rise in the cost of living. And Addis Ababa, the capital, the "New Flower", is decked out in a thousand lights at night, perhaps to take the sting out of the daily roadworks. Due to a lack of resources, the Ethiopian government has abandoned the education of the country's children. Mission Enfance, upon discovering the destitution of the pupils in the field in April, undertook to supply all the textbooks for the start of the new school year to 1,500 primary and secondary pupils in the south of the country.
The challenge facing our association is to provide a glimmer of life to the most vulnerable in an apocalyptic situation. Given the increase in conflicts around the world, and the lack of resources to save the victims, our priority is to bring relief and hope, thanks to you, to the most vulnerable, through a simple, concrete and generous gesture that gives our humanity its primary value.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
Domitille Lagourgue,
Director of Mission Enfance
IRAQI KURDISTAN
© Mission Enfance - School for 800 pupils in Itout - July 2023
It is a region the size of two French départements, whose Indo-European inhabitants, the Kurds, have been struggling for sixty years to practise their culture, traditions and language, despite the massacres perpetrated by Saddam Hussein's regime. Yet successive tragedies have not been able to alter the Kurds' loyalty and sense of hospitality. They proved this when they took in nearly two million displaced persons (Chaldeans, Yezidis, Shabaks, etc.) when the Islamic State took Mosul in 2014.
For more than thirty years, Mission Enfance has been at their side, building schools (80 to date), villages, water facilities, training, etc. Since the Daesh apocalypse, the association has been supporting displaced persons by setting up educational centres for children in the camps, and by caring for and protecting young Yezidi and Chaldean students in Mossul. Last July, Mission Enfance completed the Itout school, on the outskirts of Dohuk, for 800 displaced pupils (photo above) and is preparing to set up a new educational centre in the Xanky camp.
BURKINA FASO
For the past five years, the people of Burkina Faso have been struggling to maintain a "normal" way of life, despite attacks in their villages, bereavements, two million displaced persons and a country where the areas of peace have been considerably reduced. But the disarray of this population, by nature peaceful, stems from their incomprehension at the scale of the violence affecting all their communities (Peul, Mossi, Touareg...).
To spare these peasants the schizophrenic and miserable confinement of displaced persons camps, we are drilling wells in host villages to recreate an economic fabric through working the land, we are building schools and sponsoring many children to enable them to resume their schooling. A new container of support will leave in June for 10,000 people.
COLOMBIA
Extortion, robberies, crime, drugs, prostitution: violence has resurfaced in Colombian cities in recent months. Often linked to deteriorating economic conditions, the attacks are the work of gangs and organised gangs spreading fear throughout the country.
Our seven toy libraries, havens of peace for deprived children in the shantytowns, work to calm minds, give young people a peaceful direction and the means to build their future by following the rules of social life that respect others. From Bogota to the Amazon, from Choco to Boyaca, 13,000 young people find hope, development and protection in our educational and play centres or through our travelling toy libraries.
ETHIOPIA
© Mission Enfance - Hordes of children addicted to petrol survive on the streets of Ethiopia.
Ranked as one of the poorest countries in the world, Ethiopia faces many internal and external tensions. The average salary for a teacher is €60, barely enough to rent accommodation. Pupils no longer receive any teaching materials from the federal government. Educational demotivation is widespread.
Mission Enfance will distribute all the textbooks to 1,500 pupils in schools in the south of the country.
SYRIA
© Mission Enfance - Renovation of the Ain al Haïate school
In this troubled Middle East, the Syrians, isolated from the rest of the world, have been trying for many years to survive in chaos. The war, followed by the earthquake of February 2023, caused an abysmal decline in society (90% of Syrians survive on 13 dollars a month). The intellectual elite has left the country, leaving behind a population plagued by daily misery, distress and anxiety. Based in Syria since 2012 to work, through our three educational centres, on the education of young children in the war, we have, throughout 2023, brought our emergency aid in person to all the Syrian communities in suffering. Repairing the cracks left by the earthquake, paying for medical care, food, renovating schools... Each of our distributions gives rise to a riot of hungry crowds. In this isolated part of the world, our presence also aims to restore the dignity of Syrian families. In this way, we have been able to reach 8,000 people and give them hope.
In 2024, we are continuing our support by restoring schools in the villages and providing emergency aid to the most disadvantaged, as well as our three educational centres.
LEBANON
In this kingdom of corrupt political elites, the consequence over the past five years has been an economic crisis of which the population is the terrible victim (80% of Lebanese live below the poverty line). Nearly 500,000 of its nationals have left the country since 2019 - 7% of the population. According to a statistical study, the Lebanese will make up only 52% of the population by 2038, given the births among the two million Syrian refugees and three hundred thousand Palestinians. The land of asylum is shrinking, especially since the conflict between Israel and Gaza.
Fear, recession (200% inflation in 2023), the displacement of 100,000 southerners fleeing the fighting - these are just some of the reasons why Mission Enfance is funding children's schooling, reinforcing pupils' education by providing additional teaching in our reception centres, and feeding families by distributing food vouchers worth €50. In 2023, 6,000 children and their families will have received your support in person.
LAOS
This small country of seven million souls is landlocked between powerful neighbours, notably China and Vietnam. The Mekong is now dotted with some sixty Chinese dams that manage the river's waters as they see fit, suffocating life on its banks, the only source of livelihood for Lao fishermen. Trade, meanwhile, is in the hands of the Vietnamese and Chinese. The only way out for young people, starving because wages are not indexed to the devalued currency, is to go to Thailand to look for work. Every day, dozens of young people cross the Mekong to reach the "land of smiles"...
To counter this haemorrhage, in 2024, Mission Enfance is building schools in Don Khamao and Bane Khambone, supporting their teachers and pupils and setting up two computer centres equipped with computers in the Done Talath and Kongtoune high schools - the courses are validated so that graduates can find work in local businesses.
ARMENIA
History unfortunately accelerated for the poor inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023. After the images of despair in the lorries loaded with the meagre belongings hurriedly taken on board, resettlement was difficult in the Armenian villages, despite the spontaneous welcome given by the families. The obvious reason is that there will be no return to the land of origin. Everything has to be rebuilt in Armenia or elsewhere....
Mission Enfance supported the arrival of the Karabaghtis by providing warm clothing for the children and hygiene products for the families. Many Karabaghtis children, who are now sponsored, can now resume their schooling in dignified conditions. We are now going to work on training and equipping their parents with hairdressing and manicure equipment and farm animals to feed the children and rebuild their future.
AFGHANISTAN
The Taliban regime in Afghanistan is reinforcing its isolation in the face of "international perversion". To prove it, after banning the education of young girls, women's work and their access to public spaces, they are eliminating Persian words, Dari (understood by one Afghan in ten and by more than 100 million people worldwide) in favour of the regional language Pashto, spoken only by Pakistanis and the inhabitants of southern Afghanistan, from which the Taliban originate. A further and vexatious compartmentalisation for Afghans whose only aim today is to find a job and bread.
In this context, Mission Enfance provides nutritional supplements to 35 babies and their mothers in our dispensary in Kabul, the capital, thanks to our paediatrician. 3,381 mixed pupils are enrolled in our 8 schools and colleges, but 300 girls are still missing to take their baccalaureate...
PARRAINER UN ENFANT, C’EST LE PROTÉGER
By sponsoring a child's education, we can get them out of the confines of poverty and counter adversity through education and social interaction with their classmates. The child regains a sense of normality and self-confidence. Their school results become a shared victory with their sponsors. They are no longer alone, obliged to earn their living by shining shoes in the streets of Saigon to earn a penny; they can find their bearings when they have lost everything, their home, their family, their land, like those in the mountains of Nagorno-Karabakh who have taken refuge in Armenia. They can forget the fear of jihadists in Burkina Faso or simply study and eat their fill in Beirut, Lebanon.
Each sponsored child is monitored and met by our sponsorship manager, Marie Vauban. Messages from sponsors who live so far away are like bottles to the sea. He sees them as real encouragement to continue his education. For his parents, who are distraught because they are unable to pay for their child's schooling, it's a huge relief. Their son or daughter will be able to overcome the inevitability of poverty and take control of his or her own destiny. Mission Enfance, the guarantor of your support, manages the link between children in distress and their godparents at the other end of the world!
For just €35 a month (a cinema ticket after tax deduction) you can give a child in distress confidence!
Contact: Marie Vauban: parrainage@enfance.org - +377 92 05 32 03
© Mission Enfance : Do Tinh Anh, an excellent student, had to interrupt his studies to support his family. He is urgently waiting for a sponsor!
SOLIDARITY SHOP ON VINTED
Visit www.vinted.fr/member/42322027-missionenfance-377 or go directly to mission.enfance-377 on the Vinted application.
This second-hand clothing sale, organised by our volunteers, contributes to our container shipments and supports our programmes in Burkina Faso.
REPORT OF FINANCIAL YEAR 2022
Certified by our auditor, Mrs Janin-Ragazzoni, from KPMG-GLD et Associés, at our General Meeting on 15 June 2023. Thanks to the support of the Government of Monaco and our patrons (Mr and Mrs C. Rhodius, Mr and Mrs R. Galbiati, Jutheau Husson), only 0.64% of your donation has been spent on the running costs of the association's head office.
We would like to thank them:
Mr B. Alkazzi, Mr and Mrs E. Bouygues, Mr Myoung-Cheul Chung, Direction de la Coopération Internationale, Fondation 21, Fondation Entreprise Air France, Fondation Morgana, Fondation Notre Dame/Fondation Gabrielle, Fondation Walanpatrias, Salle Gaveau, Mr J. Lisman, Montier Charitable Trust, Opera Gallery Monaco, Mr and Mrs B. Ruiz-Picasso.
