Enfants & Developpement
Enfants & Developpement (also called E&D) is a charitable non-governmental organization supporting children in need in France and all over the world. Established in 1984 as "SOS Children of Cambodia" and being the first permanently presented NGO in Cambodia, it aimed at helping the children who suffered from the Cambodian genocide. Ever since, E&D has expanded its activities to Vietnam, Nepal and Burkina Faso. The organization is committed to promote and strengthen the rights of children, women and discriminated groups. In its 4 countries of intervention (Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal and Burkina Faso), it is now recognized for its expertise in early childhood education, social work, vocational training, preventing violence and maternal and child healthcare. E&D has a vision of a society in which children and young people have access to essential social, health, educational and cultural services which allow them to develop harmoniously and to flourish within their family and community without any discrimination.
Areas of intervention
Social work
The first project in social work of Enfants & Developpement was implemented in 1990 in Manilla, capital of the Philippines. Its goal was to support street children. Ever since, E&D has broadened its horizons. In 2004, the first Family Development Program began in Cambodia and is now disseminated in all our program countries. The project Fighting violence against women and girls is also conducted in Nepal among Chepang women. Finally, in January 2015, the project Childhood Protection began in Vietnam.
· Family Development Program in Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia and Burkina Faso
Enfants & Developpement has carried out the Family Development Program in all its intervention countries: Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal and Burkina Faso. The methodology used by E&D is highly progressive/innovative. It consists in both vesting responsibility in the families and giving them the necessary resources and follow-up so that they can achieve their objectives.
The efficiency and success of the program is based on two key factors: a good partnership with local authorities and local social actors and the complete involvement of the families in the process ofi improving their living conditions.
Once a family asks for help, all the work is completed at their home by a social worker who sets objectives and goals to attain, with the family, and provides intensive support during a six months period in order to create long term solutions.
In order to improve the quality of social services in the areas of intervention, the project is based on a network of public and private actors that has been developing since the beginning of the project. Every day, the Social Centers welcome and deliver counselling to all the families of the District, including those who are not followed-up with at home.
· Childhood Protection in Vietnam
The childhood protection project started in Vietnam in January 2015.
It is based on three activities: - The training of actors working in child protection in Ho-Chi-Minh-City’s neighborhoods, especially voluntary counsellors who will deliver advice adapted to the needs of the children and their families, who are being accompanied in bridging councils of the city. - Initiation sessions to the Family Development methodology. - The capitalization of good practice as well as the awareness of all the actors to child protection
The offered formations and the awareness-raising campaigns enable the involved actors to coordinate their actions and make their actions known.
· Fighting violence against women and girls in Nepal
The project aims at reducing the prevalence of all forms of domestic violence through the "empowerment of Chepang women" and in particular, through the evolution of behaviors. One of the major strategies of the project is based on the methodology called “The School of Husbands”, developed by the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) in Niger that aims at involving men - through several activities - in order to enable behavioral changes. Awareness sessions for teenagers are also organized in order to challenge traditional roles and gender issues.
Finally, protection mechanisms for women and the capacities of health and education professionals are strengthened in order to enable an efficient, coordinated and long-term action to tackle this societal issue.
Since 2001, Prayash, a Nepalese NGO, has developed capacities in the fields of empowerment, the fight against violence and human rights promotion. Armed with their previous experience and their appraisal, E&D and Prayash decided to join in order to fight to stop violence against women and girls in Chepang communities.
Education
· Early Childhood Program in Cambodia and Burkina Faso
Enfants & Développement has carried out its mission Early Childhood in Cambodia since 1989, and in 2011 expanded its actions to Burkina Faso.
The Early Childhood is a major focus of E&D’s mission. This project aims at fostering young children’s development and awakening by giving them access to a quality pre-school education. Like James Heckman, the 2000 economics Nobel Prize winner, we are convinced that the expenditure and public policies in favor of Early Childhood generate undeniable socio-economic benefits with very important returns on investment, which are decisive for the development of a country.
E&D’s action facilitates access to pre-school education in designated areas by establishing (semi-) communitarian run schools as well as training and consulting actors in the childhood sector. The teachers, who come from the communities, receive a pre-school education training including pedagogical methods in child development. Schools are being built or renovated in deprived neighborhoods. The equipments and facilities are also furnished in order to provide good teaching, mental stimulation and hygiene. In addition, innovative pedagogical tools such as workbooks, games and videos are created and adapted for the teachers’ use.
Local authorities are involved due to the fact that they handle administrative tasks; such as covering the teachers’ wages and assigning some of their own teachers. Communities are informed about early childhood stimulation, the benefits of pre-school and everything directly or indirectly related to young children’s fullfillment (nutrition, health, parent-child relationship).
In Cambodia, along with our local partner Krousar Youeng (Kr Y), E&D has participated in the development of an academic program for the Department of Education, and also created over a hundred community-run pre-schools in the rural sector, where the aspirational autonomous-model (self-governance in 3 years) has been successful. Based on its experience, it has undertaken the task of strengthening the plan in Cambodia through the creation of a resource center dedicated to the cooperation and the exchange of good practices between professionals in the sector. The Early Childhood program has recently been extended into Burkina Faso for the benefit of the most vulnerable families living within informal settlements in Ouagadougou.
Health
·Sexual and reproductive health in Cambodia
In Cambodia, where maternal and infantile mortality rates are high, E&D acts in order to facilitate access to maternal care for women belonging to rural populations.
The "Sexual and Reproductive Health" program works to improve the access and quality of sexual and reproductive health services in rural areas according to two complementary axis: - A curative way so as to strengthen the capacities of health centres (trainings and equipment) - A preventative way so as to raise awareness and mobilise the village communities, to follow pregnant women, in order to reduce the maternal and infantile mortality rates and to offer medical and psychological support to women victims of sexual violence.
To be understood by all people, sensitive issues touching on inequalities and domestic violence are presented to the inhabitants through plays and peer listeners have been trained in the villages to be mediators for the most disadvantaged families.
Following the same logic of proximity, Doulas have been trained to support, listen and provide counselling to women during their pregnancy.
Vocational training
· Vocational training in Nepal Enfants & Développement has carried out projects of vocational training since 2011 in Nepal with its local partner Voice Of Children, and has just launched this project in Vietnam where it will be fully operational from 2013 onwards.
E&D’s actions invocational training are carried out in collaboration with social action programs led by the vulnerable populations in our countries of intervention.
The project aims to help young adults and adolescents from the slums and social centers of our local partners to elaborate on a personal professional project. The beneficiaries are between 14 and 30 years of age.
The project has two components : orientation and follow up in vocational training and accompaniment in the labour market. Young people are informed of the different trades and training required for the professions they desire, are briefed and prepared for the difficulties they may encounter, and are then enrolled in training and followed. Once they have received their diploma, they are guided in the labor market to find a job in their area of qualification. To do this, the social work team works daily with the young individuals so that he or she attains a social-economic autonomy. This work is done in the network with the training centers and enterprises, the employers, the different sectoral clusters and the cooperatives.
References
External links
This article is related to the List of non-governmental organizations in Vietnam.
Foreign charities operating in Vietnam