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AIC Responds to Poverty in Madagascar - The children and their rights - Empowerment of mothers and fathers for responsible fatherhood The origins In 1988, scandalized by the growing number of children wandering and begging in the streets, a group of 4 women and a catholic Sister decided to take care of 15 street-children. Now, in 2004 we are 120 volunteers, organized in 14 groups caring for more than 3100 persons - babies, children, youth, handicapped, widows and single mothers left behind by their partners with numerous children. MDG I: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Very soon we became aware that it was not enough to feed the children but to give them an education. The first condition to re-integrate them into school was in fact to offer them a regular meal, thus preventing then from begging; and we are very proud that tins works till today and that we had to close none of our school-kitchens for one single day. In addition, we created basic classes to train children living in the street for entering public schools. Meantime we detected that most of them had mothers, too poor to care for them. So we invited the mothers to help us in the kitchen and to work in the garden we had bought in order to grow vegetables for the kitchen. We too started offering them training in hygiene, nutrition and skills like embroidery and the production of juice, enabling them to take care of their children themselves. For the older children we created a workshop where they build carts to bring the vegetables to be sold to the market. In 1992 we became a member of the AIC, International Association of Charities, a catholic association joining together 250.000 female volunteers, working in the social field in more than 50 countries of the world (41 of them poor or very poor countries). We adopted their guidelines: Not to “give help” to a person but to enable him or her to themselves take responsibility for their lives, their families and their communities by education, technical, mental and spiritual training, information on civil rights and social co-responsibility, access to modern means of communication and last but not least by struggling on all levels fix legal and political frameworks facilitating justice and peace. One of the AIC policies all over the world is to create partnerships among AIC member associations and with all governmental and NGO partners sharing their objectives. The other is that volunteers are to be qualified for their service. So, in collaboration with UNPD (United Nations Program for Development) we organized training for our volunteers in order to qualify them to take over social co-responsibility, not obvious in my country for women, many of them poor themselves. By training on a national level and by international contacts ,very soon we became aware that to fight poverty in children will not be possible by an isolated action but by a bundle of measures including the whole network of families and communities. MDG Il: Achieve universal primary education So as we detected that many children were not officially registered, we started a joint action with the local authorities for registration in all of our centers, thus giving the children not only access to health care and education but also the chance to perform their civil rights, one of the basic human rights. We then followed the children by offering them pre-school education. By giving them school-meals, and paying for school-dresses, school-fees, books and so on, we enabled them to enter public schools and for some of them even high-schools and colleges. For those who were too old or had left school as well as for handicapped youth we tried to find jobs and offered professional training in agriculture, woodwork, sculpture and sewing, qualifying them to take over responsibility for themselves. All this was possible by a partnership within the AIC and with the National Ministry of Education offering school-kits, since two years inscription to primary schools is free, thanks to a joint action of NGO with the government. MDG lll: Promote gender equality and empower women We became aware that the promotion of children was not really possible without the promotion of their mothers. We, therefore, with partners from AIC France created a very simple project of micro-credits combined with training on budgeting benefiting about 100 women and 100 families. Only during the initial phase of the project did AIC volunteers or other trainers assist in technical training in agriculture, reading, health, sewing, basket-making, management and trade. Besides this they try to sensitize men and women for traditions favorable or not to development. The main objective is to enable women and families to develop skills and self-esteem and to empower women and families in order to create well-balanced relations based on confidence and the mutual exchange of experiences. MDG lV, V, Vl: Reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Another prerequisite to create better living conditions for children is to invest in healthcare: 1. For the children themselves by vaccination (poliomyelitis, measles), distribution of vitamin A, and the AIC partnership project: “To be in good Health”, (was) offered in all centers. In some of our centers we distribute a bowl of milk and/or a bowl of coin-powder and a health-check including weight-control of babies by volunteers and volunteer-doctors. This is co-financed by Catholic Relief Services and Terre des Hommes. 2. Mothers are offered training in health and hygiene during our weekly meetings. AIC also participates in the campaign for the protection of mothers by training the trainers and sensitizing the mothers with whom they work. 3. By fighting against AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases, hindering development and destroying families. AIC regularly takes part, and, is asked to assist in national and international campaigns against AIDS, malaria, cholera, for vaccination against infectious diseases and mother’s milk feeding by: • Sensitizing and training of mothers, as they are the first guarantees for development • Distribution of new medicines like Palustop to those mothers trained in application • Distribution of mosquito-nets impregnated with insecticides, offered by the government to pregnant mothers. • Use of water-cleaning systems and iodic salt in our school-kitchens. All this is done in collaboration with NGOs like Roll Back Malaria and PSI (Population Services International) AIC submitted its national program to fight Malaria to the Malagasy Government, elaborated together with 7 other Vincentian associations present in Madagascar. MDG VII: Ensure environmental sustainability In our centers, sensitizing and training are offered to the whole community on behalf of sanitation measures in order to create better hygienic conditions and to prevent diseases. The project ‘A Roof first” has been created to give back their dignity to homeless mothers and their children, appropriate housing being a primary human right. AIC lakes part in the annual national campaign of reforestation. We plant and help our mothers to plant “MORINGA LIFEIRA,” a tree for multiple uses: leaves and fruit for nutrition, seeds for cleaning water and producing oil. Develop partnership for development All our projects are successful; however, our volunteers are aware that they only can give a good start to mothers and children and that they have to find solutions not for them but with them and by dialogue, listening, exchange and empathy create and promote a general sense of co-responsibility. This, together with the realization that persistent poverty of children and women very often is due to the increasing number of fathers leaving their families, motivated AIC volunteers during our national assembly in August 2003 to create a national “Program for responsible Fatherhood.” Donated by the international John Delva Prize on the occasion of the International Day to fight Violence against women in November 2003, together with international partners like KODAK and Alliance Francaise, and the national Ministries of Population, Social protection and Family, a nationwide campaign and competition could be launched, including all means of communication as press, national television, poster and advertisements. The objectives of the program are: Sensitizing men and society to the fact that the first kind of violence against women is to be abandoned with their children without any financial means, forcing them to send their children begging in the streets. The campaign promoted discussion and contributed to raising awareness of the problem in the society, Together with education and an adequate legal framework it should be possible to reduce the number of fathers leaving their families, and thus prevent child poverty. TOWARDS A GREATER SOCIAL CO-RESPONSIBILITY, WAY TO PEACE All our projects prove the necessity to join our forces: Volunteers and beneficiaries, civil and church authorities, local, national arid international organizations. In all of our projects we are in daily struggle against a multitude of problems like HIV, homelessness, violence against women, lack of health-care, closely related, and demonstrating the complexity of causes, that is daily violations of children’s right, women’s rights, violence against women, and gender inequality. More and more we become aware that the most efficient poverty eradication policy and best methods of translating MDG’s into action, are to strengthen physical, social and human capacities by equal access to health and education thus empowering all those suffering from poverty - fundament of crucial social transformation in order to promote the development of men, of all men - approach to peace. Rose de Lima Ramanankavana AIC, International Vice-President The Chance of a Lifetime | The UN System | MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT | Vincentian Global Network | UN Calendar | Climate Change | Ban - Chamber of Commerce | Ban Ki-moon urges action | Safe water for all | Millennium Development Goals | | Return Home | About Us | What's New | Current Focus | Articles | Great Links | Email Form | |
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