Cécile, who heads up the ÏDKIDS Action Fund, talks about the needs emerging from the current health crisis – from children in hospital, in foster care or in underprivileged situations in France, Bangladesh or Madagascar – as well as the initiatives created to help.
Cécile, can you explain what is guiding the Action Fund’s choices at this time?
What specific actions are being taken?
We’ve already undertaken two types of actions for the most vulnerable families and children:
For children who are isolated in hospital (visits not allowed due to the confinement), we have worked with our partner Ludopital to organise activities managed by the N’JOY partner brand teams by videoconference. Additionally, JoyVox, the cultural and musical partner brand, will send each child electronic birthday cards and a personalised song. Together, we’re offering this activity to the paediatric services of hospitals in France’s Nord department and the Lille metropolitan area.
At the request of Emmaüs Solidarité, we are working with various other foundations, to gather tablets so that children in foster care homes in Ivry and Paris can continue their schooling remotely.
Are there any other initiatives under way by the Action Fund’s partner brands?
Yes, thanks to their generosity, we were able to grant several requests for toys or clothing:
- At the request of the Fondation Maintenant, we’re going to provide children at the Necker children’s hospital (Paris) with Lunii story boxes to help them pass the time thanks to Oxybul.
- We were able to grant the request of a nurse from the ICU department at the Timone hospital in Marseille. Claire, the manager of the local Oxybul store, went to great lengths to bring them creative and imitation games and books.
- Antonio, an Oxybul store manager, delivered toys on Monday, 6 April for children whose mothers are victims of domestic violence and are staying in the emergency centre set up for the duration of the confinement by the V2 shopping centre and three different associations. They take turns staying on call in case of need (SOLFA, Solidarité Femmes Accueil, the CIDFF, an information centre for women’s and family rights, and theLOUISE MICHEL association).
- The Jacadi teams also arranged for an urgent delivery on 10 April of newborn kits for several babies born at the Necker children’s hospital whose mothers have the COVID-19 virus and whose fathers must remain in isolation.
- With our long-term partner Dons solidaire, we are also planning to distribute 45,000 items of Okaïdi clothing as soon as our warehouse reopens.
The Action Fund is also working with its many partners to meet the needs of children and their families.
What is the ÏDKIDS Action Fund doing abroad?
With our long-term NGO partners, we are providing funding, equipment and medical care to the most underprivileged children who we’ve been helping for more than 10 years in Bangladesh and Madagascar. The situation these countries is especially critical:
In Bangladesh, those living in the slums are no longer allowed to leave their neighbourhoods to earn a living or shop for food. Wahid, who is responsible for our local school, immediately took action and collected €300 from his friends to prepare 60 emergency food parcels to meet the needs of the most destitute families. Because the school has been closed since 20 March, the teachers are not able to work, and so they have been helping to prepare and distribute food.
When he learned about this initiative, Professor Yunus, with whom we are already partnered, immediately offered to provide €18,000 to finance the project for the next 3 months through his foundation Grameen Shikkha (Grameen Education). Nearly 150 families will receive meals. We will be contributing an additional €5,000 and turning to our partner hunger relief foundations to deploy this aid.
Additionally, the four individuals from the dispensary we finance are doing valuable prevention work teaching hygiene techniques to children from the slums and their families.
Finally, in Madagascar, where we created a social business with the Tohana association a year ago, 14 new apprentice seamstresses have adapted their production.
Because they cannot produce the tote bags with our partner Jacadi (fabric stocks are blocked in Italy), they are now making fabric masks to meet the needs of local associations and at our request.
The ÏDKIDS Action Fund ordered 2,000 masks to hand out to beneficiary families of another partner, the Koloaina association. This approach is doubly useful since these women are learning a trade while also helping to protect their community’s health.
Whether locally, nationally or internationally, we are working hard with all our partners to pursue our mission: to act everywhere in the world for vulnerable children.
