What we do projects Archive - Fondation Joseph Lagesse

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.

2018-2019 youth project at Bois Marchand

The youth project is an 18-month initiative for youth living in Bois Marchand. It comprises three intertwined activities: street art, life skills and professional orientation, and aims to bring a shift among vulnerable young adults. The program reaches about 30 young teenagers and adults.

Dombeya Agricultural Youth Club

The Dombeya Agricultural Youth Club was set up in 2016 to address two key activities involving youth in Chemin Rail:

Community gardening project
Happy Bees project (a beekeeping initiative in Chemin Rail).

This is a community-based initiative by FJL with the input of two expert facilitators, Mr. Allain Raffa and Mr. Michael Lafrance.

The aim of the project is to build capacity among youth of the locality and to introduce social entrepreneurship in our area of intervention in Chemin Rail. The initiative also believes in the mobilisation energy coming from a group of young teenagers forming a club and structure its activities under various responsibilities taken by each one of them.

The project has been quite successful since its start date with three sales of honey to members of IBL Group, since. This has generated a small income which is reinvested in the activities of the club.

Youth orientation program at Chemin Rail

The Foundation is committed to support young people to pursue their talent and develop their ambitions. Supporting young people to recognize their skills, their interests, allows for a wider range of opportunities for self-achievement opened to them. The foundation is committed to personalized support during the transition phase between school and professional life.

About 10 youths living in Chemin Rail are concerned by the program.

FJL Scholarship Scheme

In 2015, a committee was set up with a view to offer for the first time an overseas tertiary scholarship, subsidized from a non-CSR fund, in order to allow a student to live his dream abroad. The Foundation renewed this scholarship scheme 2 years later, in 2017, through a call for applications. Candidates were selected according to well-defined profiles, talent, target professional sector, personality, passion and their families’ financial situations. A selection questionnaire was put in place by the committee, followed by an interview panel.

In 2015, Mr. Steven Ramjee was selected for medical studies in Montpellier. In 2017, Miss Chloë Desvaux was singled out for psychology studies in Rouen. Both still benefit from their scholarships.

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.

Fondation-Joseph-Lagesse---Bois-Marchand_033

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.

cadca-at-youth-centre-31-aug-1-sept---barkly-mangalkhan-(9)

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.