In Africa, the notion of time is not identical to ours...

Each passing day belongs to itself, to-morrow belongs to to-morrow and does not go any further. Projection in time is an hazardous notion which means nothing. Children don't even have time to go to school, or rather they have time only to go cultivate their fields, to look after younger brothers and sisters, to carry out domestic chores...

But for Aide et Action in Africa, India and Haïti, putting time aside makes it possible to educate a child. A gift from a sponsor becomes the time of a promise, the time of a child who learns, of a face which brightens up.

Time, this immaterial gift, as precious as the chalk which draws the first words on the slate, time makes it possible for the local communities to understand our approach, to accept us. Time makes it possible for our action to bloom. It allows us to better understand the culture in which we immerse ourselves, to proceed slowly together with a feeling of mutual respect.

Take time to think about it...time is not the same for each of us, but to all of us it gives a chance of doing great things. Or we can waste it and do nothing of it

In your opinion, to take the time to watch a child grow, to take the time to walk at his side for part of the way, is it not something great ?

It is little by little that hopes come true. Small things lead to big ones. Take the time to hold out your hand to a child... !


AIDE ET ACTION

TIME FOR SCHOOL

Today, more than 130 millions children have no access to school ! Fifty years after the signature of the Declaration of Human Rights, we all know that much remain to be done and that one of the first rights of children is the right to a truly child's life, the right to go to school !

 

A mission for Aide et Action : primary schooling for children.

An objective: to bring to school one million children before the year 2000 !

 

Since it was launched in 1981, Aide et Action operates in Africa, India and Haïti where it creates a momentum for schooling almost exclusively in rural areas. However, building schools is not enough... they must be filled. Children must come and stay ! In the last 17 years, close to 700 000 children have thus gone to school.

Acting locally means building schools with their equipment, but also training teachers, providing school books and pens, launching practical activities such as kitchen gardens, organizing canteens, sinking wells, developing income-providing actions, building day-nurseries, teaching adults to read...

 

Such actions are made possible mainly through sponsoring which provides most of the ressources available to our association. Sponsoring is a privileged way to support, for 100 french francs per month, a child's education. It is an act of solidarity which starts a process of exchanges, of mutual respect, of understanding each other's culture through correspondance and, sometimes, visits on the spot.

 

Individuals but also communities and private firms which support our programs are assured of a transparency recognized by two awards, in 1990 and in 1995, of the Prix Cristal for financial information bestowed by the National Company of Chartered Accountants.

 

Education equals opening out and development. This is not only words, it is the first step of a fight to avoid being sucked down. It is what Aide et Action fights for on behalf of all these children, girls and boys, who participate in the projects conducted for their future and for the future of their communities.

 

To help Aide et Action, to help children exercice their right to schooling, a right every child is entitled to, is simple. Give a little bit of your time, buy this time as you are invited to by the fête de l'Internet and our host Fred Forest on his site, participate in an act which already brought together the 52 000 sponsors of Aide et Action, an act of generosity !



You can also reach us directly :

Aide et Action, 53 bd de Charonne. 75545 Paris Cedex 11.

Tel : 01 55 25 70 00. Fax : 01 55 25 70 29

N° Vert 0 800 000 586. E Mail aea (a) worldnet.fr

E Mail aea@worldnet.fr