The child protection programme in Madagascar started years ago with the construction of a Multifunctional Day Care Centre (Mangafaly), supporting families in the Antsiranana Province, Diana Region, in the city of Ambanja. The main activities carried out in the Mangafaly centre concern the dissemination and improvement of basic education and the reduction of school drop-outs, in order to guarantee basic education for children who have never been to school in the region.
The beneficiaries included in the programme are therefore all children and their families, who, by joining the general programme, are assisted on different levels with the aim of improving the growth and integration prospects of children from the most isolated and remote villages in this particular region of Madagascar. In just a few years, the Mangafaly centre has provided primary education to more than 50 children a year (with peaks of 80 enrolments in previous years) and supported another 50 with after-school activities, attending local public primary schools (EPP).
Today, the centre is duly registered with the Malagasy authorities as a kindergarten. The school programme is defined annually, both for the petite session (class of 4-year-olds) and the grande session (5-year-olds), taking into account both the Malagasy curriculum and any innovative elements to be integrated into the classic programme.
The programme also includes a calendar of extra-curricular, afternoon and summer activities. The teachers follow a course of constant updating, both through discussions with expatriate volunteers and by taking part in local training. The staff maintains constant contact with the families and also monitors economic conditions through home visits with our staff.
The Mangafaly centre also maintains a partnership with the district hospital doctors who regularly visit the children at the centre to ensure that they are in better health.
As regards the support and schooling of children already attending the public primary school (EPP), COPE provides a school kit each year, which includes uniforms, teaching materials and payment of the annual fee.
Moreover, thanks to the support of the Enfant du Monde foundation, there is a canteen inside the school that allows each child access to a full meal every day, together with training and awareness-raising meetings on proper nutrition and the risks of malnutrition, a programme that includes not only the children of Mangafaly but also neighbouring schools.
Concerning child protection and access to the exercise of civil and political rights, COPE staff take care of obtaining birth certificates for the children of Ambanja (Mangafay and EPP) because in the most serious cases, children without birth certificates, being ‘invisible’ in the eyes of the law, are victims of trafficking or sexual abuse.
