spotlight CHILDREN FIRST Monaco-based Mission Enfance is rebuilding conflict-torn places around the globe using the bricks and mortar of knowledge By Lanie Goodman 10 NetJets
Imagine rows and rows of white tents, as far as the eye can see, side by side. Each may have ten to fifteen family members living together in the same space. It is their only world.” Domitille Lagourgue, Director of Mission Enfance, who has just returned from Iraq, is describing the multitudes of displaced refugees living on Iraqi soil, among them more than 16,000 in the camp of Sharya, in Iraqi Kurdistan. “They cannot remain in these camps indefinitely because their entire family structure is destabilized,” she says. “The father, who might be a farmer, loses his paternal authority, his role as the breadwinner. All he has is a meal ticket.” Which is why the French and Monégasque organization Mission Enfance has a deepseated commitment that goes beyond giving aid to devastated, war-torn areas. “Our leitmotif has always been rehabilitation. We Children at a Colombian school, that has benefitted from Mission Enfance’s aid encourage people to wait out the conflict instead of fleeing and try to help them return to the place where they were born,” says Lagourgue. “Of course, we can’t send villagers back to a dangerous place under bombardment. But once they’re able to return to their homes – which are often in very remote places – we give them access to food, medical treatment and, most importantly, we build schools.” Lagourgue, an engaging, energetic woman with lively eyes and mellifluous voice, sits behind a wooden desk piled with papers, notebooks, and Post-it Notes stuck to the computer screen. Here and there are framed photos of her with a team, visiting construction sites or talking to children. It is almost hard to imagine how so many complex international projects originate from this modest office, hidden away in Monaco’s modern district, Fontvieille. “School is a center of life, a place where a terrorized child, who may have lost his parents or his home, will be distracted. We try to open their minds and bring them beyond their suffering, so that they can experience their childhood.” The plight of refugees is, in fact, nothing new to Lagourgue. In 1986, along with her husband, Edouard, and their two small daughters, she moved from Paris to live for two years in Peshawar, Pakistan, near the Afghan border. “It was during the political unrest of the Soviet-Afghan war,” she explains. “At the time, we were based at the French humanitarian refugee camp staffed by organizations like Médecins Sans Frontières. We made incursions into Afghan territory, even though the borders were closed.” Working as a journalist for French publications including L’Express and La Croix, Lagourgue witnessed the migration of millions of Afghans who fled to Pakistan or Iran. “Every day, we saw caravans of camels with families, carrying all their belongings,” she recalls. “It was massive.” In 1991, she relocated to Monaco, teaming up with a Monégasque priest, Father Stéphane Aumonier, who co-founded Mission Enfance. “At the time, Prince Rainier III was looking to expand humanitarian associations. It gave us an opportunity to continue what we’d already begun in Afghanistan and to pursue an ideal that we believed in.” Combining this association with Lagourgue’s widespread network, the small-scale organization quickly achieved impressive results. To date, Mission Enfance helps children who would otherwise never have the possibility to attend school in places including Afghanistan, Armenia, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Iraqi Kurdistan, Laos, Lebanon, Syria, and Vietnam. In contrast with other humanitarian organizations with more substantial budgets, Mission Enfance focuses on projects in isolated areas in the desert or the countryside where larger NGOs don’t often venture. “With €1.5 million, we build ten new schools each year,” Lagourgue says. “In 28 years, we have educated more than 1 million and taught them to read and write.” Their annual budget also covers a variety of community programs: Among them, the creation of ten educational centers with game and toy libraries, six orphanages, a nursery, and ten health clinics. These days, under the Honorary Presidency of HSH Prince Albert II, the Principality of Monaco finances 80% of the charity’s operations, while private donors contribute the remaining 20% of the funding. With only three permanent employees, 50 local workers in the field and approximately 35 volunteers, the low cost for internal operations is clearly significant. “For a donation of €100, we send €99.40 to the project area and take out next to nothing,” affirms Lagourgue with a smile. “We have 4,000 private donors, mostly in France and Monaco. They know that their money is going directly to the field.” XXXXXXXXXXXXX “School is a centre of life, a place where a terrorised child will be distracted” 11 NetJets
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