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
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