What we do projects Archive - Fondation Joseph Lagesse

Sexual and reproductive health programme (SRH)

The Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Programme is the 1st out of 5 components of EU funded HORIZON 2024 of the foundation. Horizon 2024 aims at preventing teenage pregnancy and empowering youth living in an underserved neighbourhood, called Bois Marchand.
So far, the SRH programme has reached 89 youth aged from 10 to 16 years old. Its content is aligned with UNESCO’s International Technical Guidance in Sexual education which is comprised of 8 key concepts developed and taught to the youth:

Relationships
Values, Rights, Culture and Sexuality
Understanding Gender
Violence and Staying Safe
Skills for Health and Well-Being
The Human Body and Development
Sexuality and Sexual Behaviour
Sexual and Reproductive Health

Life skills programme

Life Skills programme

Fondation Joseph Lagesse’s Life Skills programme is a comprehensive capacity-building course, which targets youth aged from 14 to 19 years old. Funded by the EU under HORIZON 2024 project (2020-2025), it has been designed by FJL’s team and is taught by FJL’s social worker and community-liaison officer, Mr. Nicholas Florine.

Young participants have the opportunity to get to know themselves better, before learning to develop harmonious relationships with peers and family, integrate communication skills, process childhood difficult life events, identify violent encounters and prevent addiction to tobacco, alcohol and other drugs.

It has been running since 2018 and is fully integrated to HORIZON 2024 today.

No. of youth reached: 56

Supporting parents

Fondation Joseph Lagesse has initiated since 2014 a project named “Parents efficaces” for parents living in Bois Marchand. It also offered a course for women living in Bois Marchand, called “L’Atelier des Mamans” destined to offer life skills to the community in an aim to bring peace and positive communication within the family household.

Since 2021, the two initiatives are an integral part of HORIZON 2024, so that the teenage pregnancy initiative includes the parents in the endeavour to build their capacity and skills to communicate better with their children and teenagers.

The course is provided under the name Parent Effectiveness Training program, inspired by Thomas Gordon (Gordon Institute, USA) and has reached 20 parents since the beginning of the program.

Atelier des Mamans also reached 29 women living in Bois Marchand. The project has had positive results within the community, in the way that participants enthusiastically share how the topics addressed changed the way they engage in communication and/or relationships with their spouse or their children, bringing more peace in the house.

A residential workshop was also set up in 2024 with an exclusive male audience (22 men from Bois Marchand) to address topics such as Relationships, Violence, Sexuality. It was facilitated by a clinical psychologist, Mr. Vijay Ramanjuloo and an expert in Sexual and Reproductive Health, as well as HIV/aids and other STDs, Mr. Pascal Lamisong.

Pre-primary education at Bois Marchand

Ste-Famille pre-primary school, located in Bois Marchand delivers quality education to 50 children living in the area. The school comprises two age levels:

Children between 3 and 4;
Children between 4 and 5.

A dedicated and certified team offers a Montessori approach to the curriculum structure.

The school is also registered at the Early Childhood Care and Education Authority and is currently being run under Nou Zenfan Bois Marchand. It has eleven members of staff, including the Home visits program and the Food program.

Afterschool activities program

Afterschool activities program.

Fondation Joseph Lagesse offers an afterschool activities program to children of primary level (Grade 1 to 5), who live in Bois Marchand. The aim of this program is to support the children’s development by focusing on their talent for creativity, their ability to learn through fun games and activities, and their social skills. The program includes arts and craft activities, meditation and field trips twice a year.

The home visits program

The home visits program.

The home visits program is Ste-Famille pre-primary school’s key strategy to enhance quality education. The program, involving three permanent home visits workers, ensures that there is constant dialogue with the children’s parents and family regarding educational aspects of the child’s development. It also provides for the social protection of families, especially the child’s caregivers.

The home visitors are trained to conduct monthly home visits at families whose children are registered at the pre-primary school, as well as those whose children attend Terre Rouge government primary school and who were registered at the pre-primary school before.

The intervention of a part-time psychologist is also a component of this program. Children are referred to her for individual psychological follow-up and she supports the home visits workers in their mission.

The food program for children

The food program for children.

Fondation Joseph Lagesse supports children’s education by providing them with two meals throughout the day: breakfast and lunch for pre-primary level children and breakfast and afternoon snack for primary level children. The Fondation provides for the preparation of 35,000 meals per year.

Giving access to health services

The other key component of the HORIZON 2024 project, funded by the EU, is giving access to healthcare, as it has been observed that vulnerable populations refrain themselves to look for existing healthcare services and to go to healthcare facilities, if those are far away from their home or if they feel stigmatised. Therefore, it was crucial that the 1st three components of the HORIZON 2024 programme be completed by a 4th one addressing health issues, especially sexual and reproductive health. 49 female youth and adults of the community were offered the services of a medical practitioner, and had the opportunity to discuss the reasons why they could not access healthcare services and facilities, during focus groups. They will also benefit from the services of a nutritionist this year.

Another component of this section is to prevent use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs among youth. A youth coalition named Union Zenes Bois Marchand, reuniting 25 youth, was set up to address this. They meet regularly and are taught skills to initiate activities to reach out to other youth from the community.

Revey Twa Bois Marchand Pou Nou Fierte

Revey Twa Bois Marchand Pou Nou Fierte is a community development project starting in 2016 and ending in 2019. A needs assessment exercise was completed and several consultation meetings with the community were held.

5 projects were earmarked by FJL and the community:

Health project for children at the pre-primary school
Youth project for youth in Bois Marchand
Capacity-building initiative for facilitators of Bois Marchand
Enn zoli Bois Marchand embellishment project
Effective parenting program for parents in Bois Marchand

The project is to be evaluated in June 2019 together with the community.

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Coalition Project for drug prevention

Community for anti-drug coalitions of America is an NGO based in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. Fondation Joseph Lagesse, through its manager, Mrs. Martine Hennequin, started a collaboration with CADCA for a period of 2 years to empower 4 communities in Mauritius in drug prevention. Barkly, Bois Marchand, Solitude and Mangalkhan are the 4 communities benefitting from a 2-year training program in drug prevention and coalition building. Fondation Joseph Lagesse is the national coordinator for this project, through its community development department.

According to CADCA’s criteria for the success of the program, 12 sectors need to be represented in the coalition: youth, business owners, parents, local organizations, religious bodies, education, health, law enforcement, media, youth-run organizations, civic and volunteer groups, state or local authorities.

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The Chemin Rail social housing program

The Chemin Rail housekeeping program is the direct next step after the 10-year social housing project of the foundation. It offers a whole year of weekly sessions with the beneficiaries of new homes to address various topics related to moving in a new environment: energy saving, maintenance, gardening, budgeting, safe keeping of important documents, as well as addressing some life skills like communication or conflict resolution.

Housing improvement project

Ten families, living in poor conditions in Bois Marchand, have been earmarked for special support involving the construction of sanitary blocks in their house. This project has been designed under the Bois Marchand Mo Landrwa community development project in 2016. It is still undergoing. A total budget of Rs 1,2 million is needed for this initiative.