FemAid

Le dimanche 15 décembre 2013, nous tenons notre vente annuelle de cadeaux de fêtes de fin d'année pour l'Association FemAid. Des merveilles des quatre coins du monde
Venez passer une après-midi conviviale avec nous

.Contactez nous pour plus de détails

On Sunday December 15th 2013, we are holding our annual sale of Xmas/Chanukah/Kwanza gifts. Marvels from all over the world.
Come and have a cup of tea with us and mail us for details

Depuis 2011 à Kisangani et depuis 2012 à Bukavu, nous avons mis en place des bourses pour des jeunes filles destinées à l'apprentissage de métiers, en particulier, l'électricité, l'électronique et l'énergie renouvelable.

Nous aidons de futures électriciennes à obtenir des bases pour l'apprentissage des énergies renouvelables. Même si celles-ci ne sont pas encore enseignées, cette formation s'intègre dans le projet sur les énergies renouvellables est mis en place avec l'association Ecoboyoma récemment créée pour mettre en place des projets liés à la préservation de l'environement et l'utilisation d'énergies alternatives. Les étudiantes représentent, pour le moment moins de 5%, il est urgent de les encourager.

Nous nous sommes engagées pour le financement de cycles longs sur quatre années, permettant l'obtention de diplômes.
Les jeunes filles sont minoritaires (comme en France) dans ces écoles techniques destinées aux hommes, mais toutes sont conscientes que cet apprentissage leur permettra une autonomie financière tout à fait inédite .

À Kisangani, nous travaillons avec Liliane Salumu de l’université de Kisangani.

A Bukavu avec Semy et Béatrice de l'association AFIA-FEV, un intrépide association d'infirmières qui travaillent avec des victimes de violence sexuelle et des enfants des rues

A la rentrée de 2013, nous avons inscrit dix étudiantes à Kisangani et sept à Bukavu.
Pour soutenir la scolarité, les frais, le matériel scolaire, l'uniforme (obligatoire) d'une personne, il suffit de 500 € par an. Toute somme moindre sera affectée aux frais d'inscriptions ou de matériel.

Contactez-nous pour tout détail supplémentaire: info(AT)femaid.org

Et vous pouvez envoyer votre don par PayPal

Depuis septembre 2012: DES BOURSE D'ETUDES POUR LES ETUDIANTES DE L'UNIVERSITE DE KISANGANI (RDC)

L'Association FEMAID a mis en place des bourses d'études pour des étudiantes à Kisangani.

Une partie est destinée aux étudiantes en genre à l'université, l'autre à des jeunes au Lycée professionnal Chololo qui s'intéressent à l'énergie renouvelable.

L'université de Kisangani, située en pleine forêt tropicale congolaise à 1 700 km de Kinshasa est en train de mettre en place un département consacré à l'étude du genre. C'est particulièrement important puisqu'il s'agit d'une université les plus importantes du pays, située dans une zone de conflits et proche de régions où ont lieu des viols collectifs. Une pareille refléxion est donc urgente, ce qu'a démontré un séminaire que nous avons mené sur place en septembre 2011.

Cependant, pour des raisons économiques, il y a bien moins d'étudiantes que d'étudiants: comme en maints autres endroits, les études masculines sont privilégiées.

Nous avons mis en place un projet de soutien aux étudiantes en sociologie qui désirent mener une recherche sur le genre et conflit, ainsi qu'une étude liant genre, reconstruction et développement, comprenant un travail sur l'utilisation d'énergies renouvelables.

La sélection des lauréates de cette bourse d'études se fait par le bias du département de sociologie et du CEREPSAN et de l' Association ARED (Actions et Réalisations pour le Développement), de Kisangani.

Cette formation s'intègre dans le projet sur les énergies renouvellables est mis en place avec l'association Ecoboyoma récemment créée pour mettre en place des projets liés à la préservation de l'environement et l'utilisation d'énergies alternatives.

Une fois de plus, notre sponsor principal été le groupe d'amis SAMATA à qui nous adressons nos remerciements.

Le projet sur les énergies renouvellables est mis en place avec l'association Ecoboyoma récemment créée pour mettre en place des projets liés à la préservation de l'environement et l'utilisation d'énergies alternatives.

Contribuez généreusement à cette initiative unique et urgente par Paypal (www.femaid.org) ou par un chèque à l'ordre de Femaid ' (l'adresse sera communiquée à la demande)

Une bibliothèque/CDI et centre pour femmes et enfants en Afghanistan

A public library and centre for women and children in Afghanistan

with HOLD, a Kabul/Farah based NGO

a FemAid/HOLD joint project

opened in May 2009

inaugurated November 1st 2009

but still going strong!

We are still helping to support this great library with new educational projects such as training of birth attendants

Nous continuons à soutenir cette bibliothèque avec de s projets éducatifs telle que la formation des sages-femmes des villages

Background

Farah is situated in Western Afghanistan, near the Iranian border, between Herat and Kandahar. It is one the rural regions that have been ignored by major aid agencies, with the notable exception of PRT which have been active in many fields.Population estimates vary through lack of official documentation and the sheer difficulty in undertaking any such research, but 200 000 inhabitants make up a conservative estimate.

This is a remote area indeed where women’s lives are extremely hard, to the point that self-immolation is a frequent occurrence [1]. The level of health and literacy is extremely low, infant and maternal mortality are very high [2]. This is a region crying out for help.

FemAid, a French charitable organisation, is the only non-Afghan charity involved in the Farah area.

For three years, we had been working on a library/early learning centre project.. We launched it in temporary premises, with the help of a local grass- roots women's association and PRT. Then in May 2009 , the project expanded to a fully-fledged women and children's centre. More than library it also houses various courses and counselling activities, run exclusively Afghan women, thereby becoming a true social centre in the midst of Farah.

Our target audience are young women and their children, that is to say most of the school-going population in a region where girls are married by the age fourteen to fifteen and have children immediately. It seemed to us pointless to enforce school education and literacy when no books were available afterwards. This project is primarily designed to help schools in their long-term mission.

In 2008, we bought a very large amount of Persian-language books in Kabul and then in 2009 another consignment of children's books, encyclopedias, reference books and toys in Mashad (Iran) for this library. Pashto and English-language books and teaching methods were also acquired in Kabul. The temporary library served as a revolving library for schools in the Farah province. School directors borrowed books on a regular basis for their school. We also bought 60 encyclopedias for 60 schools.

We were careful to choose books respectful of Islamic law and Afghan custom,to avoid any adverse reaction, fiction and non fiction, world literature, works covering the fields of sciences, history, technology, practical medicine, first aid, childcare, home economics , as well as reference works (encyclopaedias, dictionaries and teaching aids).

The early-learning centre is equally important in Afghanistan where children are perceived as incomplete adults and the specificity of childhood is denied.

Getting an independent centre started

FemAid has been involved in this project since its inception. There is no giving up. With our implementing partner HOLD, we decided to work on a structure that would be culturally, socially acceptable, even in these exceptionally difficult circumstances. Having all the local contacts (essential for such a project), this was feasible. PRT was very encouraging as well.

With HOLD, our implementing partner and sister association in Afghanistan, a grass-roots organisation,we decided to transfer the whole project and open a women’s centre, a place where young women feel comfortable to go with their children We rented a building, installed a family and guard and transferred the books and toys. All this has been successfully undertaken in the month of May 2009. Shelves, tables, chairs were built, carpets put down.

The library in the centre is the first of its kind; furthermore, girls have been attending massively school since the fall of the Taliban. There is a 8000-strong student population in the city. It is located near the nearby Mirman Nazoo girls' school. There are 3000 female pupils there, studying in shifts, many of them former refugees, of which half of them are married and many mothers (marriage takes place quite often at 13 or 14 if not before).

The centre was opened in May 2009

In October, the PRT generously donate a large office package which comprised furniture (including the oversized couches that are 'must' in any Afghan administration), computer, printer, paper. We can only hope that electricity lasts longer than three hours a day so that everyone can enjoy this equipment

The Center comprises :

A library

An early-learning centre where children learn from playing (the first of its kind in Afghanistan)-

A centre for various courses (literacy, English maths)

A counsellng centre: for the moment,

Today in 2013 the Centre runs the following

Computers and internet

Health and psychological counseling

Health education including reproductive health

Legal counseling and women’s rights, both constitutional and Q’uranic :

Income-generating courses

Some articles by Carol Mann linked to this project

1] Carol Mann : le suicide des jeunes filles afghanes, Terra, 2006: http://www.womeninwar.org/cmann_shahide.html

2] Carol Mann : ‘Afghanistan’s dying mothers” Pakistan Daily Times, 11.2/08 http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\11\02\story_2-11-2008_pg3_6

3] Carol Mann : Un projet de bibliothèque pour jeunes en Afghanistan, Sisyphe Montréal) 1/27/07

4] Carol Mann : L’enfance est-elle possible en Afghanistan, Enfance et Psy, november 2008

www.cairn.info/article.php?ID_ARTICLE = EP_040_0165

Background situation :

Since the fall of the Taliban, an increasing number of children and young people have been attending school, more in fact than ever before as an effort has been made even in the remotest provinces to enrol students of every age. This is why classes are filled with pupils aged anywhere between seven and twenty, as young women are eager to get some kind of education. Even in distant villages, there has been a demand for schools. Furthermore an increasing number of children and adolescents have been returning to Afghanistan after many years abroad, forming the bulk of the 3. 5 million returnees that have been finding the way home since 2001. In exile as refugees, many had the opportunity to lean English and other foreign languages. Today there are no public libraries and those that exist have meagre resources and are attached to universities, principally Kabul university where there are rebuilding projects with US partner universities, therefore only available to students.

A convivial library, well equipped in books, learning material, films and music with a language laboratory for individual learning of languages is of of the utmost necessity. Literacy classes are useless if no appropriate reading material is provided. Furthermore, without libraries, it would be impossible to maintain any previous knowledge of foreign languages as well as learning new ones, as young people fluent in English and other languages have generally chosen to work for NGOs rather than go for poorly paid teaching.

Projects aimed at youth are vital in a country where the median age of the Afghan population is 17.5. This library is aimed at young students in primary and secondary schools and their teachers : because many girls learn to read at a comparatively late age, primary schools often bring together young boys and teenage girls. A special section is reserved to very young children who are usually cared for by their older sisters or young mothers : illustrated books and toys await them whilst their siblings use the other library facilities.

More than a library, this is a place for exchange and communication, study and active workshops, in collaborations with other efforts to build up a civil society.

In the future, through computers and Internet facilities, links with other schools and cultural youth groups worldwide could be established. This centre, situated in one of the key areas of Afghanistan could be at the centre of many cultural exchanges between young people and schools East and West.

From every point of view this is a pioneering project which will further Education for All and be of great help to the schools in the area.

Furthermore, for a society emerging from over a quarter of a century of war, a special area within the library with learning activities designed for young children will contribute to enrich perceptions of childhood generally. Half the pupils in the Mirman Nazoo are married and mothers, so the idea is that they could come to the library with their children. Playing as a learning activity for children does not exist, because the concept of childhood as a period of discovery, learning and development is inexistent. Just as in pre-Enlightenment Europe, a child is considered just an incomplete, immature non-sexual adult who has to train for future hardship, especially girls. An area devoted to an Early Learning Centre, with creative games and toys will certainly advance the cause of childhood here.

Project management :

This project was the brainchild of FemAid, a registered charity in Paris and was helped by the ACA Gallery in Toronto which organizes and promotes art shows to support charitable causes.

Today the Afghan NGO, HOLD runs this project to which we continue to contribute

Why build a children's library in a war-torn country ?

On one level it seems self-defeating, pointless if Taliban are going to torch it. Should we stop at that ? The challenge is a far more vital one. The intensity of my first voyage to Farah in June 2006 reminded me of my initiatory trip to wartime Sarajevo in the summer of 1994, I had encountered, for the first time this particular mixture of despair and hope. With Azra, an amazing woman from the city who had reorganized the education system in her neighbourhood, we dreamt of rebuilding their school. In those days, the siege felt interminable and the return to a normal life seemed beyond the scope of imagination. But somehow it happened : together we created a small charity called ‘Enfants de Bosnie’ with the official patronage of UNESCO, the active help of the Council of Europe, the Swiss government, the Conseil régional de l’Île de France and the French contingent of UNPROFOR stationed in Sarajevo, the miracle occurred. School children all over the world participated with letters, drawings and fund raising. The Skender Kulenovic school in Dobrinja is the most beautiful in the Balkans- see www.os-sk.edu.ba/historijat.htm. In the middle of the siege, whilst the future of Bosnia was uncertain, we managed to register the school on the UNESCO Associated Schools project scheme which turned it into Bosnia’s famous school !

Likewise, the seemingly improbable library project remains emblematic of a future for the new generation of Afghans as well as our own kids. Their fates are intertwined : what affects women in Afghanistan ends up having consequences in our own world, as the rise of reactionary politics all over the world ominously demonstrates. Sharing literacy, literature, arts and games, a culture that is neither consumer nor religion orientated, creating a common set of references through positive dreams and social ideals may create bonds that wars and politics might have otherwise irretrievably destroyed. The fight goes on, for them, for us. And in our globalized society, your help will make a difference not just in Afghanistan, but in your own environment.

Carol Mann

http://www.femaid.org/slideshow2.html

Un projet FemAid: le développement commemoratif destiné aux femmes, à la mémoire d'un être cher.

Contactez-nous si vous voulez que nous élaborions un projet commémoratif sur mesures.
Voici un exemple d'une belle réussite

A project to remember:

If this kind of commemorative development project interests you, for a departed relative, to celebrate a birth or a marriage or for any other reason, please contact us.
Read about this success story, in honour of Anita

The story of a personal project

In the summer of 2006, we all lost a very dear friend , Anita Feltus, in Los Angeles. We had been close for over a quarter of a century, our families knew each other well, we had stayed with each other more than once. She was an exceptional person in every respect, truly charismatic, infinitely supportive and mourned by her husband, her son and daughter and grand-daughter as well as her sisters, brother, nieces, nephews, in-laws and countless sister/brother friends all over the world.

All her life, she had dreamt of going to Africa whence her ancestors had been wrenched as slaves bound for the Americas. We had talked about it more than once, but an untimely illness took over her life. When she passed away, I felt I wanted to do something meaningful in her memory. So somehow the idea formed in my head to go and plant fruit trees in her memory in Africa. Anita was a talented gardener, rising every morning at five to tend to her roses; she also was a superlative cook and professionally an extremely generous and wise social worker, as well as committed to women's rights, having personally fought for black civil rights . She would have wanted to do something for women in need, so the project blossomed in my mind.

I called my good friend Aida in Dakar and she was immediately enthusiastic . She knew of a small village not too far from her, with an enthusiastic women's association in an area fertile enough to grow trees and vegetables. Yet whilst the women bought fruit from orchards to sell at the market, being extremely poor, they did not own anything of their own and each had several children to support.

I wrote round to family and friends, many responded enthusiastically, although perplexed by this wildly ambitious project, all the more as I had never worked in Africa. Well, after Afghanistan, I thought anything must be easier..... Apart from Anita's family, there were also generous friends in France and Dakar who loved the idea. FemAid raised money during the holiday gift sales and looked after the rest.

I arrived in Dakar on March 9th 2007 and went to stay with Aida and her wonderfully supportive and helpful family .

We went to the village, Garage Bentenye, several times. It's along a tarmacked road to tourist areas, unnoticed by travellers in a hurry to get to the beach. Forty odd kilometres away , but three hours drive from chaotic, crazy Dakar, this is small village of 1000 inhabitants made out of two hamlets, one Wolof, one Serere, largely Muslim but also partly Christian as it even has its own church. The village has electricity but just a single manual water pump to which the women come from all over, carrying buckets on their head. There is a tiny dispensary open a couple of times a week, some kind of a school- all of which are in a sorry state. There is large vegetable garden and mango groves, but these are privately owned, one person seems to own most of the goats; the villagers themselves own very little, the women even less and any trees in their compound are the property of the husband's family, this being a patrilocal society, that is to say women move in with the husband's family.

We initially thought that lemon trees would be a good idea, but we first wanted to discuss matters with the women concerned. We presented Anita's story in detail, me in French, Aida in Wolof. This being Africa, they welcomed Anita into their lives insisted on knowing all the details about her life and identifying each relative and friend in the photo album, prepared in Paris - which is what one sees in some of the photographs. The project was presented as a partnership and each recipient feels personal and spiritual responsibility to their tree.

The Women's Cooperative Association (they exist in African villages, as women are comparatively powerful and respected, quite the opposite of what I have encountered in Afghanistan) decided they wanted mangoes which grow much more abundantly and sell well. They had recently started to make jam and produce from this fruit which they had begun to sell in the nearby hotels, but they had to buy the fruit until now. So, helped by my friend Aida who negotiated (thank goodness!), we bought them in Dakar from a nursery, organised the logistics, the careful and difficult diplomatic issues regarding who got the trees ( a very tricky issue) and finally decided to give them to the hundred members of the association, to each wife and co-wife, an unusual way of organising aid, which was greeted with much gratitude, as this meant a measure of self-sufficiency for each.

Through FemAid, we also decided to refurbish the only crumbling well of the village and dig two meters deeper, essential for this project and the survival of the whole community. As we have done before in Bosnia, Pakistan and Afghanistan, we chose to work with the Women's Association exclusively. I publicly handed its president a sum of money to cover the costs for the well, leaving them to argue prices with the well builder and raise money for any extra features they might want (such as a lid or improved pulleys). As FemAid has always done, we decided to help two particularly gifted and ambitious girls with their studies: Khadi, age 13, top of her class of 65 students who wants to be a lawyer and Mariam, age 10, who aims to become a doctor

Every tree carried a label with Anita's photograph, mentioning that the tree was given in her memory with the name of the donor inscribed. And the trees were planted with great joy, dancing and singing. A little ceremony was held for each, every one insisted on knowing the story of the donor as well as Anita. Each person who gave for this project will be welcomed to Garage Bentenye for years to come.

Somehow, miraculously, the project worked out, despite enormous difficulties at the onset. Africa is not an easy place to work in, to say the least. I am happy because I feel I have helped Anita return to her roots

This is a beautiful, different way of promoting development: we hope that this is the beginning of many such projects world-wide

But hopefully the story of Anita's trees does n't end here.

This is indeed the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Once this project is completed, we want to change the roof of the primary school which lets in blazing sunshine as well as torrential rain in the rainy season. The women have also asked us to help them purchase a plot of land for the Women's Association that they could farm collectively. Any further donations coming in for Anita's trees will go towards these projects.

What does such a project depend on? At a time when so many aid projects flounder, it is worth thinking about what is needed to make things work. Naturally the question remains open as we have just planted the trees.

This Memorial project is based on the memory of a real person whose story was told to a population for whom this was particularly meaningful- so much so that women said 'Now Anita is my sister'. Likewise, the project itself had to be important for the person whose name it was created, in this case an African-American who had spent her entire life helping others and campaigning for human rights. On both sides, a sociological and anthropological understanding of the background situation was essential- Senegal is not the same as ever-grim Afghanistan, despite Islam featuring so prominenly in both. Furthermore, this is a partnership, we provided about 80% of what was necessary; hard work, investment, extra finances are the responsibility of the recipient community who take the main part in this story.

Finally, last but not least, a trusting working relationship with a person from the area, in this case wonderful Aida who will provide the all-essential follow-up. And naturally my promise to visit .

This project may herald a trend of meaningful development and FemAid certainly hopes to be part of it.

Carol Mann, President of FemAid

If this kind of commemorative development project interests you, for a departed relative, to celebrate a birth or a marriage or for any other reason, please contact us

LA CONSTRUCTION DE TOILETTES POUR FILLES A L'UNIVERSITE DE KISANGANI EN RDC

Cette préoccupation d'apparence prosaïque est essentielle dans les universités africaines, en particulier à Kisangani où nous avons effectué un premier séjour en octobre 2010.

Cette université dessert les étudiants venus des provinces de l'Est où se déroulent actuellement les viols les plus effrayants.

J'ai pu constater l'état épouvantable des latrines, si toutefois on peut décrire de la sorte la hutte de boue sans eau ni lumière située dans un pré infesté de serpents tropicaux, affecté aux besoins des étudiantes.

Elles en souffrent et le perçoivent comme une forme de discrimination genrée, les garçons pouvant faire leurs besoins partout, y compris dans l'espace public. On le sait bien: dans les camps de réfugiés et ailleurs, de nombreux viols ont lieu su le chemin des latrines, ce qui ajoute aux dangers d'une situation véritablement insupportable.

Nous avons pu contribuer à la construction de WC tout à fait corrects, dans le cadre de la remise en état de l'universite, complétée en 2012.