For seven years the ÏDKIDS foundation has funded projects to promote education and parenting support in Madagascar in partnership with Inter Aide. The NGO works with local partners to support projects focused on early learning, education and health.
Through Inter Aide, the ÏDKIDS foundation supports the charities KOLOAINA and KOZAMA. These initiatives are part of the foundation’s commitment to invest in its brands’ countries of production to support the most vulnerable families and uphold children’s rights. Partner NGOs like Inter Aide were chosen because they work to meet families’ basic health, education and child protection needs.
- Alice Tran, Jacadi procurement manager, and Cécile Delivre, head of the ÏDKIDS foundation, went to meet some of the Madagascan families helped by KOLOAINA and KOZAMA:
“The four mums we met all have sick babies and children, which makes it very difficult for them to find jobs. Most of the babies have respiratory problems caused by their living conditions, coal dust from stoves and poor ventilation. The mums are all looking for ways to get by (a micro-loan for a business or something similar) and KOLOANIA offers them its support. We’re also looking at the possibility of setting up a social business with the charity and Jacadi’s suppliers to help them.
In the afternoon we visited children attending preschool with KOZAMA’s help. We attended a parent-child workshop organized by the charity in the middle of a slum. The aim is to bring parents and their children closer together and forge a bond between them. The parents enjoy quality time at the workshop singing to and bathing their babies while they discuss their problems and the importance of taking care of their children.”
KOLOAINA and KOZAMA provide a bespoke support service for vulnerable families through parent/child workshops (for 0-2-year-olds) to strengthen the parent-child bond, instil good hygiene habits and promote relaxation (singing, cuddles and so on). The more children feel secure in affection, the better they develop and learn later in life.
KOZAMA also organizes programmes to educate children from the slums. The charity works with state schools to give children the opportunity to attend primary school free of charge. KOLAINA works to help every child obtain a birth certificate. In the slums, midwives help women give birth at home. Not being doctors, they are not allowed to officially register births. KOLAINA thus takes steps to ensure these children are registered, as they have very few rights without the necessary paperwork.
How the foundation’s work in Madagascar adds up
100,000 euros per year donated to Madagascar:
- 30,000 euros for educating 2,300 children (schools and academic support).
- 30,000 euros for early learning workshops and support for 1,200 vulnerable children and their families.
- 40,000 euros to combat infant mortality, particularly malaria in the east of the country.
