Regions: Africa   Asia   Latin America


Name of Organization: Association pour le Developpement Actif et Participatif (ADAP)

Country: Mali

Project Title: "Renforcement De Capacite pour n changement de comportements et de pratiques des communautes et des responsables de l'enseignement Fondamental afin de mieux lutter contre le travail des enfants a travers l'education dans la Prefecture de Koutiala" ("The Intensification of Capacity for a Change of Behavior and Practices of Communities Through the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of the Victims of Child Trafficking in the Circle of Koutiala")

Project Timeframe: 6 months

Location of Project: Koutiala

Budget Amount: $10,000

NGO contact and website:
B.P. 105 Koutiala, Mali
Tel/Fax: (00223) 2-640-828
Email: adap@afribone.net.ml or ongadap@yahoo.fr

Project's Primary Objective: Raise awareness of the importance of education for all children, and mobilize a wide array of actors to improve and expand education infrastructures.

Description of Organization: ADAP is was created in 1997 and is based in Koutiala, Mali. ADAP's work covers several regions of Mali and includes the sectors of: health (through capacity building of community health centers), education (girls' education, books,), HIV/AIDS (women & children), governance, and rural hydraulics.

ADAP collaborates with the local administration, and has received funding from partners such as the Swiss Inter-Cooperation Agency, the National AIDS Program, OMAES, the Health Pivot Group, and Johns Hopkins University. The NGO also conducts joints activities with the U.S. Peace Corps.

Description of Project funded by CIRCLE: This ADAP/CIRCLE project will reinforce the capacity for behavior change and change of practices by communities and primary school authorities in order to better fight child labor through education in the district of Koutiala. The Malian context is home to a tradition that accepts child labor, and where a lasting economical crisis has aggravated the phenomenon towards situations of mistreatment, trafficking and disrupted schooling. Moreover, the country's educational system suffers from a general lack of adequate teacher-training.

To more effectively fight child labor through education, ADAP has, in a Round 1 CIRCLE project (Feb. 2004 – Jan. 2005), led awareness-raising and advocacy activities for behavior change and change of practices by communities and primary school authorities. As a result, educational support and advice structures have been set up in the district of Koutiala, namely:
  • Work groups in 16 villages composed mainly of parents of students;
  • An advocacy committee composed of 10 members from parents associations, management committees for Education Centers for Development (CED), school directors, and organizations responsible for the administration of primary and secondary schools;
  • A consultation committee composed of police and the NGOs responsible for the management of child victims of trafficking and mistreatment;
  • A network of peer educators composed of 32 children (aged 10-16), from both formal schools and Education Centers for Development (CED); and
  • An education consultation committee of 47 members for the district of Koutiala composed of local political, administrative and educational authorities.
For this Round 2/Phase 2 CIRCLE project, ADAP's strategy is to make these gains sustainable by reinforcing the educational system through awareness-raising activities and trainings for under-trained educators in the district of Koutiala, extending the reach of the project to seven new villages. The trainings will be aimed at 38 members of organizations in charge of managing education and will be given in one session covering specific needs that will enable the trained authorities to better support and supervise their students.

At the same time, awareness-raising activities, aimed mainly at parents in the villages, will range from group presentations followed by debates, home visits, radio programs to counseling sessions. Peer educator activities will also be encouraged and meetings for the different committees will be facilitated. These activities will allow the different political, administrative and educational authorities and particularly the parents of students to gain the capacities to better organize themselves in the fight against child labor, and moreover will enable them to register 500 uneducated children in formal schools or in an Education Center for Development.

The long-term goal of the project is to contribute to the reduction of child labor and child trafficking and to the improvement of schooling and persistence rates in the district of Koutiala.

Project Targets (Common Indicators):
Enrollment: 500 children into 7 formal schools and 7 educational centers
Persistence:
Transition:
Completion: