Photo credit: Jocelyn PIGET
Due to the lack of means of families, many children in Madagascar are victims of school dropouts. In order to support them and enable them to access education, Aide et Action and its local partner SODIM collected and distributed over 5,000 school supplies to primary school children.
Among the obstacles to education, the cost of schooling for children is a major problem. Indeed, even if public schooling is free, the purchase of school supplies represents too great a burden for many parents. This is the case in Madagascar, where many children drop out of school due to their family's lack of means. To overcome this difficulty, Aide et Action and its local partner SODIM have decided to take action by offering school kits to the most disadvantaged.
Easing the financial burden on families
SODIM is a leading company in the sale of school supplies and its clientele is generally well off. The company therefore had the idea of proposing to Aide et Action to canvass its shops in order to convince customers who had bought school supplies to leave an item as a donation for children from families in difficulty. This partnership, which is a "test action", has allowed us to raise awareness among customers throughout the holidays, from July to September. At the end of this period, the organisation's volunteers collected 5,345 different school supplies.
Proud of this result, the partners decided to distribute the donations among the primary schools of Manjakaray, Ambohijafy and Betioka Atsimo. For Manjakaray, the official handover took place last week and 83 children from the school's early learning programme received kits. All the targeted pupils will receive 3 notebooks of 100 pages, 3 notebooks of 50 pages, 5 pens and 3 pencils. The rest of the donations are school packs containing chalk, cloths, etc.
This joint action aims to improve access to education for all. Currently in Madagascar, UNICEF estimates that 1 million children are excluded from the school system.
