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AMADE engages itself in the fight against COVID-19

World Association of Children's Friends
Princess Caroline of Hanover / AMADE

Founded 50 years ago by Grace Kelly, the World Association of Children’s Friends (AMADE Mondiale) helps more than 40,000 of the world’s most vulnerable children every year. During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic crisis, AMADE, today presided over by Princess Caroline of Hanover, has redoubled its efforts to provide a helping hand for disadvantaged children and teenagers.

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AMADE is always mobilised to provide aid during emergencies. Engaged throughout the year in several long-term programmes (Dignity for Women, Energy of Hope, Capoeira for Peace and Unaccompanied Migrants), AMADE adapts to crises alongside its local partners and donors to help vulnerable children and refugees. Having helped in crises such as the 2013 Typhoon in the Philippines and the 2015 Nepal earthquake, AMADE has been fully engaged in the fight against COVID-19 for several weeks.

“We are mobilised for the African continent”

“We are mobilised for the African continent and the health issues they are currently facing,” says Jérôme Froissart, Secretary-General of AMADE. “We have launched an emergency appeal to mobilise funds, which are currently allocated to two partner associations. The first, ALIMA, a health service based in West Africa with whom we already have a project on the prevention of child mortality in Niger. For their part, they are involved in this emergency operation by supporting referral hospitals in Senegal, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We have allocated €20,000 to ALIMA, which has enabled the purchase of twenty oxygen concentrators for a hospital in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.”

Continuing to study thanks to technology

“We have to adapt to the situation in Africa. Even if there are few cases, there is still an evolution, so we are attentive to respond to the needs we have on the ground as best we can. We have a grant of €20,000 to set up an analytical laboratory to strengthen local health structures.”

Alongside Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr Denis Mukwege, who is currently at the head of a referral centre in the DRC (Panzi Foundation DRC) mobilised to prevent the spread of the epidemic, AMADE is also putting in place means to improve education on the African continent. “We are working to support digital educational platforms as a tool in Senegal and other West African countries as well as the access to education on the African continent, to promote digital inclusion for children who no longer go to school. This should enable them to continue education thanks to technology.”

Tackling school dropout rates in France

AMADE is also heavily involved in France as well as the African continent. “The CFM Indosuez bank in Monaco responded to our emergency appeal, so we are collaborating on an emergency operation launched by several French NGOs and foundations,” Jérôme Froissart continues. “This should enable young people from underprivileged backgrounds who have lost contact with school during lockdown and who do not have access to technology to access education. We are going to release €42,000 to give 169 young people in the PACA region, in Nice, Grasse, Toulon and Digne, a personal laptop and Internet connection. We will also be implementing a mentoring programme so that an adult can assist each young person.”

AMADE Mondiale cannot carry out its important work with children without the support of generous donors : I get involved with with AMADE