Tackling social exclusion in Burkina Faso

LOCATION AND GENERAL INFORMATION

Our aim

Samusocial Burkina Faso (SSBF) is a Burkinabe association that was created 13 years ago with the support of Samusocial International. Its mission is to contribute to the fight against social exclusion of street children in Ouagadougou. Since it was created, the SSBF has developed various services, including mobile teams carrying out street rounds, an emergency shelter and a day care center. It also supports its partners in order to build and strengthen a continuum of care, including assisting street children and young people in their plans to leave the street.

PROJECT CONTENT

Street child participating in a social and education activity

Continuous assistance for street children in Burkina Faso

The objective of this programme is to fight against social exclusion in Burkina Faso by improving the situation of children and young people at risk living on the streets of Ouagadougou and supporting their projects to leave the street.

Specific objectives:

  • To give them access to professional emergency services tailored to their specific needs, 7/7;
  • To detect, prevent and respond to physical and psychological abuse they suffer;
  • To provide them with support for their ‘off the street’ projects, through family tracing and/or directing them towards reintegration programmes managed by public services or partner associations;
  • To inform and mobilise civil society and public authorities on the phenomenon of street children so that great attention is given to this problem in their actions.
Medical assistance in the street

Samusocial activities at the centre

The centre’s work is organised around several activities:

  • Reaching out towards street children and offering them medical, psychological and social services in the street. Street rounds are organised every night on the streets of Ouagadougou, in specific areas where street children live, in order to offer them medical care and to listen to them, allowing them to reconnect with society, regain their self-confidence and consider their future.
  • Offering immediate protection measures to the most vulnerable of street children by giving them access to the SSBF emergency shelter and/or day care services.
  • Offering street children access to basic hygiene services and professional consultations (with doctors, social workers and psychologists) at the SSBF day care centre or through referral to partners’ services.
  • Supporting street children in their projects to leave the street and/or to get back with their families. For children who are considering the possibility of reconnecting with their families and potentially returning home, Samusocial offers support and family mediation. For children who are willing to leave the street in other ways, Samusocial refers them to partners who are specialised in medium or long-term programmes (schooling, vocational training, etc.).
  • Informing mobilising and including municipality services in activities for street children.
  • Organising awareness activities for the general public.

Expected results

Hygiene services in the day care centre

To protect and take care of street children and young people, each year giving:

  • 900 children and young people access to medical, psychological and social care;
  • 150 new children and young people contact with the mobile team;
  • 150 children and young people access to the emergency shelter.

To support street children and young people in their projects to leave the street and/or to get back with their families, each year supporting:

  • 70 children and young people in their projects to leave the street;
  • 50 children and young people in their family tracing projects.

To inform and mobilise the general public about social exclusion of street children and young people, with each year:

  • around 15 public and private stakeholders taking part in a cooperative and consultative group about street children and young people.
Social session between a street child and the Samusocial team

Links

samusocial International http://www.samu-social-international.com/fr/
samusocial Burkina Faso http://samusocialburkinafaso.org/

OUR PARTNERS

logo samusocial Burkina Faso

Improvement of living conditions of street children in Luanda

Location and general information

OUR AIM

Samusocial International in Angola helps promote an inclusive society by reinforcing actions and partnerships between civil society organisations and local authorities involved in caring for the most excluded children and adolescents.

Samusocial International has been present in Angola since 2010 and works with street children in partnership with the Angolan Association CACAJ (Arnold Janssen Children’s Centre). Since Samusocial International started its work there, over 300 street children have received specific medico-psychosocial support.

PROJECT CONTENT

Luanda-02

According to UNICEF, 5,000 children live on the streets of Luanda 

The programme acts at three different levels:

  • Improving access to basic services and quality of care provided to street children in Luanda, by assisting the Arnold Janssen Centre with technical means;
  • Strengthening cooperation and networking between non-governmental actors and public institutions/local authorities involved in care and support to street children;
  • Promoting street children’s rights by raising awareness of the living conditions of street children, spreading information and experiences between all entities involved in children’s care.

Samusocial International’s activities

To ensure that access to basic social services are improved for street children in Luanda, the following actions are envisaged:

  • Medico-psychosocial support to vulnerable children by the mobile outreach team and by the Arnold Janssen Centre;
  • Strengthening of Arnold Janssen Centre management with logistical, human resources and financial support;
  • Supporting of the family reinsertion process in partnership with relevant local and national institutions.

Cooperation between professionals from different social entities for street children with local authorities will be strengthened through the following activities:

  • Organising ongoing training sessions for the Arnold Janssen Centre teams;
  • Organising ongoing training sessions for partner teams;
  • Facilitating the exchange of best practices and cooperation between shelter facilities working with street children in Luanda and with local authorities. Organising and developing a network of state and non-state actors working in the social and family reintegration of children and young people.

Information and documentation about the status and rights of vulnerable children will be made available to public and civil society child protection actors through the following activities:

  • Ensuring continual updating of documentation and data about street children;
  • Developing technical guidance documents for the network professionals and organising information and knowledge sharing;
  • Developing advocacy tools for the rights of the most excluded children.

Expected results

Access to basic social services are improved for street children in Luanda through improved technical capacities and means of the Arnold Janssen Centre:

  • 400 street children benefit from medico-psychosocial support support during the two years of the project;
  • 800 children a year receive individual care and social support;
  • 20 street chidren benefit from family tracing each year;
  • 120 children living at the Arnold Janssen Centre participate in educational, vocational and leisure activities.

Sharing and cooperation between professionals from different social facilities for street children along with local authorities will be implemented through training and experience-sharing sessions:

  • 30 professional staff from the Arnold Janssen Centre and partners participate in training sessions, professional exchanges and networking.

Information and documentation about the status and rights of vulnerable children will be made available to public and civil society child protection actors:

  • 40 professionals, decision-makers and public/private stakeholders working with steet children and/or vulnerable children get access to documentation about the situation of street children ad receive technical documentation and guidelines produced during the project;
  • They participate in advocacy events involving street children organised at least once a year in Luanda.
Luanda-03

Links

Samu Social International http://www.samu-social-international.com/en/

Samu Social International – Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ssiangola/timeline

Centro de Acolhimento de Crianças http://cacajluanda.org/

OUR PARTNERS

logo_cacaj   SamusocialInternational-logo

Multimedia library for children in Ziguinchor

Location and general information

Context

The UEFA Foundation for Children will contribute towards the cost of an Ideas Box portable multimedia library and thereby allow the Franco-Senegalese association Future au Présent (FAP), which works with streetchildren in Zigninchor, to do more for the education of these children who do not go to school. The project will help 7,500 children, with a special emphasis on books for girls.

35% of under-15s work

Casamance is an area in the south of Senegal. It is one of the poorest parts of the country and, moreover, has been a zone of conflict between separatists and the Senegalese government since the 1980s. The instability of the region, the lack of infrastructure and the extreme poverty cause people to migrate to the main town of Ziguinchor.
Children are the first to suffer from this impoverishment. They stay away from school and end up working. Some, whose families have broken up, find themselves living on the streets. Girls are especially vulneable because they often work as servants, which can result in them being abused in the worst possible way.

Ideas Box – a way to reach out to marginalised children

Libraries without Borders have created the Ideas Box, a portable multimedia kit that sits on two pallets and provides an area of 100m2 with an internet or 4G connection, computers, tablets, books and a cinema. It can be assembled in less than 20 minutes.

Atelier musique

Aims and expected results

Project aim:

  • To improve the integration and access to education of streetchildren and child workers in the Ziguinchor area of Senegal;
  • To strengthen family ties and ties between the family and the school system.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

  • streetchildren
  • at-risk children and child workers
  • vulnerable families and local schools

Expected results of the project:

  • independence and social integration of children, girls in particular
  • improved education thanks to access to books, reduction in illiteracy among children and young people, stronger resilience thanks to psychosocial support
  • strengthening of family ties
  • creation of ties between families and the school system

Our partners

biblio

FAP

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