Enfants d’ailleurs – Children from elsewhere - independent, non-governmental, non religious association

21€ per month

is sufficient for a child of Ethiopia
- to be treated
- to eat
- to go to school

parrainage_don.pdf

Places of intervention :

This association intervenes in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

Actions in Rio :

We went to Brazil in April 2008 in order to finalize the partnership started with a local association founded and run by French volunteers who live in Rio de Janeiro.
We knew that favelas, these totally insalubrious urban areas built on the hillsides above the magical bay of Rio, were places full of extreme poverty.
However people who live there manage to survive by finding small jobs down their hill: they are porters, servants, garbage collectors, or dog walkers!

The families that we help are even more disadvantaged –they live in Sao Mateus, about 40 minute far by car from the town centre, and can’t even afford to pay the bus to come and look for a job.
True poverty is here, not in some urban favelas.

The sponsorships settled there take care of families who are determined and motivated and who commit themselves to using the help from the association for getting out of their situation within a few years (3 years as a rule).
Children are fed and sent to school.
Mothers are trained on the spot by volunteers (hairdressing, aesthetics, dressmaking, cooking).
They all meet regularly to sum up the situation and see each other in a warm brotherly and convivial atmosphere.

Last news from Brazil:

Operation

The last autumn, Enfants d'Ailleurs took part into a "reading operation" in Brazil. A Sao Paulo high school helped to organise Operation 'A Child, a Book".

What did this operation consist in ? Each high school student gave a book he/she has loved. These books were handed to the children of the favela Vila Prudente this term, and they have accompanied them in their learning process.

April 2010 : Disaster in Brasil

Owing to the torrential rain, the situation in Brazil - and especially in shanty towns- has become disastrous. There are many casualties (dead, injured people, people missing under the mudslides.)

We cannot get much information from our families. Indeed the local authorities have told people to stay indoors and many roads are closed.

Once again, the poor and the youngest are the first victims in these areas first because of their high number, and also because of the lack of proper building, road equipment and drainage system. Disaster keeps recurring.

2009: new sponsorships in Sao Paulo.

As the civil year really starts after Carnival, we had to wait a few months before the actual setting up of 5 sponsorships: they are children coming from destitute Brazilian families living in Vila Prudente, one of the oldest favelas in Sao Paolo.

Since February 2009, The association Enfants d’Ailleurs has thus first taken care of the packed lunches for the families of Wanderley, Ana Caroline, Queila, Kauà and Jonny Italo.

These families more than ever need help, as a terrible fire devastated the favela last January (see article: www.lepetitjournal.com/content/view/32273/1189/) in which one of “our” mums didn’t survive! Those sponsorships are made possible thanks to the partnership with the association and the school organism Arca de Noe (www.escolinhaarcadenoe.org.br) which has been striving in that favela since 2000, thus guaranteeing the continuity of the social action launched in 1990 by a French nun, Bernadette Marchand.

Sao Paolo sponsorship plans :

Thanks mainly to our relay on the spot (Marguerite M.) several short-term plans have been made in relation to Enfants dAilleurs sponsorships:
1)   Filmed interviews of children, mums and grandparents.
2)   Regular follow up of the 5 children by the psychologist recruited on the spot by Arca de Noe.
3)   Creation of a follow up department in order to know how it fares with each child after nursery school.
4)   Mailing of a quarterly report to each sponsored child.

Enfants d’Ailleurs wishes to set up other long-term plans, such as allowing mothers to take part in the existing craft workshop or else, creation extra-curricular activities for children.
Even if the task is great and the needs on the ground are more serious than we thought at the beginning, with a lot of patience, we will succeed.