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CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Improving the protection and social and educational
reintegration of street children in Bangui

AREA OF EXPERTISE

Education and protection

Education and protection

FUNDING

Logo Centre de Crise et de Soutien
Logo UNICEF

CDCS - BENEFICIARIES

1,200
children

CDCS - FROM 02/01/2019 TO 01/31/2020

12
months

CDCS - BUDGET

300,000
euros

UNICEF - BENEFICIARIES

828
children

UNICEF - FROM 10/01/2019 TO 07/30/2020

10
months

UNICEF - BUDGET

164,000
euros

Triangle Génération Humanitaire (TGH) has been working for the protection of street children in Bangui since 2011. The organisation remains the only International Non-Governmental Organisation working on this issue in the capital city, where thousands of street children are reportedly present. These children are unaccompanied, sometimes experiencing family break-down due to violence against them or in the street out of economic necessity. The economic and political situation in the Central African Republic (CAR) does not allow for the development of state services to take care of them in suitable conditions. Marginalised children are thus exposed to many risks, including HIV/AIDS, drug addiction, armed violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, and possible recruitment into armed groups.

Activités Psychosocial. Bangui

Activités Psychosocial. Bangui, Aout 2019. © Lamine Doucoure, TGH

These projects are implemented in close collaboration with the Voix du Cœur Foundation and the services of the Ministry of Social Affairs with a view to promoting the transfer of skills, enhancing local contribution, ensuring the sustainability of achievements and supporting the State's response to this issue.

Because of their high vulnerability, these children require rapid care, as the first step towards a reintegration process. In order to respond to this urgent need, TGH and its partner the Voix du Cœur Foundation organise rounds several times a week. They are carried out via a mobile unit made up of social workers and a nurse, and are intended to meet the children where they live. The team provides them with first aid, basic medical care, listens to them, and offer recreational and educational activities as well as psychosocial support.

Préparation du repas à la Fondation Voix du Cœur

Préparation du repas à la Fondation Voix du Cœur. Bangui, Aout 2019. © Lamine Doucoure, TGH

The social workers propose reintegration solutions to the children, such as placements in care centres or in temporary foster families and reintegration into the formal school system (school and vocational training). Reunification with the child's family is also organised, if the child so desires.

The social workers also carry out prevention activities on high-risk behaviours, in the street or in the reception and accommodation centres of the Voix du Cœur Foundation. These awareness-raising activities may be accompanied by the distribution of clothing, shoes or soap, depending on the needs encountered.

Since 2003, the Voix du Cœur Foundation has been running an accommodation centre and a day care centre attended by approximately 100 children/day. At the same time, in July 2016, the foundation opened an educational centre to welcome street girls. This small structure, the only one in CAR that takes care of these children, offers a family-type supervision.

Within the framework of these projects, support is provided to help the Foundation in its administrative and financial management, and social workers are trained in the care and monitoring of children.