NETJETS US VOLUME 9 2019

spotlight
“In a world overloaded with multiple
emergencies, our biggest challenge is to
continue to mobilize our donors”
The organization also receives support
from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
which donated €428,000 to build two new
schools in the arid mountainous region of
Sinjar, Iraq, northwest of Mosul. The city
of Paris participates in creating a Mission
Enfance school for Yazidi displaced in
northern Iraqi camps.
“Since 1992, when Mission Enfance first
started working in Iraq, the population has
never known a peaceful time,” Lagourgue
points out. “There have always been conflicts–
tribal, political, ethnic–and then came the Isis
massacres in 2014.”
“We’re in the process of constructing our
sixth school in the area in the Nineveh Plains,
inhabited by the Yazidi. We also work with
the Christian community, which has always
lived in that zone, and where you’ll find an
incredible archaeological heritage and some of
the world’s most ancient churches. Right now,
in one of the villages that was 90% destroyed,
one of our projects is taking charge of Yazidi
girls so that they can go to university in Mosul.
We finance the housing and food, but since
it’s still very dangerous, particularly for young
girls, the students travel 25 kilometers [16
miles] back and forth on a special bus.”
Projects vary widely, Lagourgue explains,
but she stresses the importance of establishing
a sense of community. For villagers who have
returned and are slowly rebuilding their
homes from the debris, it might be as modest
as a rehabilitated garden with refreshment
stands where families can congregate, hold
weddings or dance.
Mission Enfance has also just completed
an educational center at Mazar-e Sharif,
situated in the northern part of Afghanistan,
intended for 2,800 children who were forced
to flee when Isis invaded their territory. “We
work in a very impoverished neighborhood,”
Lagourgue says, “but our goal is to bring
students from their first year all the way to
terminale, so they can take their baccalaureate.”
A class at the school in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan
Of course, nothing would run smoothly if
traditions were not respected. She cites the
example of needing to divide the classes into
shifts, as soon as the girls reach puberty, so
that boys and girls are not sitting next to each
other on the same bench. In these matters,
needless to say, establishing a local network
is paramount. “Here, our team is headed by
an Afghan engineer and his pediatrician wife,
who know the cultural imperatives. True, we
advance very slowly. Still, since 2005, we’ve
sent 5,000 children to school in Afghanistan.”
And now, almost three decades later, the
individual success stories are impressive.
Lagourgue cites the example of a young boy
living in Burkina Faso, sponsored by a private
donor, who is now pursuing a doctorate in
law at the Université de Franche Comté in
Besançon, eastern France. Upon graduation,
he intends to return to his country to try and
reform the antiquated judiciary system.
“In a world overloaded with contradictory
information and multiple emergencies, our
biggest challenge is to continue to mobilize
our donors to provide a long-term education
to those who are the most helpless,” says
Olivier de Richoufftz, a member of the Board
of Directors.
Ensuring the continuous financing of
humanitarian projects is equally crucial.
“It’s very difficult to have to abandon them
along the way, solely for budgetary reasons,
when they carry so much promise,” adds
Christophe Rhodius, another Board trustee.
Lagourgue, who makes frequent site visits
all over the world, is unequivocal about the
importance of a step-by-step approach that
will open doors of possibility. “When you’ve
lost everything and your home is in ruins, one
way of renewing hope is by having a place to
learn. It may not sound as urgent as giving a
sack of rice to a family, which we also do. But
above all, what Mission Enfance provides is
an infrastructure where children can rebuild
their world and believe in the future.”
mission.enfance.org
MISSION ENFANCE
12 NetJets