🌍 At the heart of the realities: Dialogue with communities
«Weaving children's rights with the knowledge of the territory.»
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This meeting, in the heart of a neighbourhood in Bamako, illustrates the very essence of our approach. Around the same table, community leaders, traditional authorities and grassroots actors unite their voices and experiences. For the Réseau Enfance Afrique, no sustainable project can be built without this debate of ideas, imbued with mutual respect. It is by listening to the guardians of endogenous knowledge and by dialoguing directly with the driving forces of the community that we manage to build, together, a protective and adapted environment for every child.
🛡️ Field presence: Reaching out to the most vulnerable
«Breaking isolation and restoring a future.»
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Sur le terrain, au plus près de la réalité des rues de Bamako, les enquêteurs du Réseau Enfance Afrique et AMAPISE (Association Malienne pour l’Appui à la Promotion et aux Initiatives des Savoirs-Faire Endogènes) mènent un travail de veille et de protection indispensable, à l’image de cet accompagnement auprès d’une mère et de ses deux petites filles en situation de mendicité. Loin de tout jugement, notre rôle est de tisser un lien de confiance, d’évaluer les besoins de ces enfants vulnérables et de proposer des alternatives durables pour les extraire de la précarité de la rue.
🦺 Acting in the face of emergency: The protection of Talibé children
«So that the street is no longer their only horizon.»
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This daily reality in Bamako's traffic reinforces the urgency of our actions. These very young talibé children, left to beg amidst road traffic, are exposed to immense dangers regarding their safety, health and development. Faced with this extreme vulnerability, the Réseau Enfance Afrique is mobilising tirelessly. Our objective is to raise awareness, advocate with key stakeholders and put in place reception and care systems to offer these children a dignified alternative, access to healthcare and an education that protects them from the dangers of the street.
Fostering Children in Mali: What 8 Years of Field Research Reveal
A deeply rooted cultural practice, caught between family solidarity and institutional blind spots.
Read the article →Fostering in West Africa: A Traditional Practice Facing Modernity
Eight years of fieldwork in Bamako reveal how rupture can occur from the very moment the fostered child arrives.
Read the article →Street Children in West Africa: What Eight Years of Fieldwork Reveal
Published in The Conversation Africa — the categories of street children, decoded through research.
Read the article →Protecting Children on the Move in Mali: The Blind Spot of Current Mechanisms
Published in The Conversation France — an informal, yet very real, community alert system.
Read the article →Fostering Children in Mali: What 8 Years of Field Research Reveal
A deeply rooted cultural practice, caught between family solidarity and institutional blind spots.
Read the article →Fostering in West Africa: A Traditional Practice Facing Modernity
Eight years of fieldwork in Bamako reveal how rupture can occur from the very moment the fostered child arrives.
Read the article →Street Children in West Africa: What Eight Years of Fieldwork Reveal
Published in The Conversation Africa — the categories of street children, decoded through research.
Read the article →Protecting Children on the Move in Mali: The Blind Spot of Current Mechanisms
Published in The Conversation France — an informal, yet very real, community alert system.
Read the article →From Field to Action: A Method That Delivers
« Understand before acting, transform without imposing »
Every investigation conducted, every dialogue built with a family, a village chief, or a religious authority, enriches a nuanced understanding of local realities. It is this lived knowledge of the field — not an imported theory — that guides each of our interventions, from child fostering to community conflicts, including food security.
A Community of Conviction
« Researchers, traditional chiefs, families: one common voice »
It is not reports that drive our action, but faces, voices, relationships built over time with the Traditional Authorities and Legitimacies of West Africa. A community gathered around a simple conviction: understand a society before seeking to transform it.
Timbuktu
Intergenerational Dialogue
Participant observation and collection of oral histories concerning child circulation in northern Mali.
Ségou
Traditional Mediation
Collaborative work with the population and customary chiefs to transpose protection standards.
Bamako
Mapping of Disconnections
Clinical and quantitative modelling of street trajectories to anticipate vulnerability factors.
Early labour
Urban vulnerability
Confined spaces and mobility
Travel and fostering
Extreme vulnerability
Water and protection
Carers
Reverse mentoring
Market and economy
Early labour
Street children
Cultures and childhood
Urban vulnerability
Land searchEarly labourUrban vulnerabilityConfined spaces and mobilityTravel and fosteringExtreme vulnerabilityWater and protectionCarersReverse mentoringMarket and economyEarly labourStreet childrenCultures and childhoodUrban vulnerabilityLand searchDay of the African Child
Established by the African Union in memory of the Soweto uprising of 1976.
World Day Against Child Labour
An ILO day to raise awareness of the millions of children still forced into labor.
International Day of the Girl Child
Dedicated to girls' rights and the specific challenges they face, including early marriage.
International Children's Rights Day
Anniversary of the UN's adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
Established by the UN to recognize the suffering of children who are victims of violence and conflict.
Day of the African Child
Established by the African Union in memory of the Soweto uprising of 1976.
World Day Against Child Labour
An ILO day to raise awareness of the millions of children still forced into labor.
International Day of the Girl Child
Dedicated to girls' rights and the specific challenges they face, including early marriage.
International Children's Rights Day
Anniversary of the UN's adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.
International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression
Established by the UN to recognize the suffering of children who are victims of violence and conflict.