Partners > Operational partners
Government of the Principality of Monaco
www.cooperation-monaco.gouv.mc
The Ministry of External Relations and Cooperation, via its Office of International Cooperation, is responsible for the coordination of the project between the various member entities of the collective, the monitoring of accounts in cooperation with the Monegasque Red Cross and communications.
In addition to the above, it also supports the “hospital partnership” component which offers training in heart surgery to staff from the Southern countries, in particular Madagascar and Mali.
Monegasque Red Cross
Presided over by His Serene Highness Prince Albert II, the Monegasque Red Cross has been working for over 65 years with the needy.
The Monegasque Red Cross plays a key role in Monaco Collectif Humanitaire as it has been responsible for the collective’s accounting and financial management since 2008. Its accounting department publishes a report every year which is available to all. Grouping together donations and the funds raised by the actions carried out for the collective, it precisely defines – taking into consideration the cost of travel, accommodation, medical care and follow up – how many children can be offered surgery every year. It also gives the signal for establishing new fundraising strategies for the collective and is itself actively involved. Finally, the Monegasque Red Cross contributes financially to Monaco Collectif Humanitaire, in the same way as all the other member associations.
Since 2015, the Monegasque Red Cross has developed a new component in favour of MCH: care facilities for children.
Rencontres Africaines
Rencontres Africaines has been organising care facilities for children requiring medical treatment since 1991.
In 2008, Rencontres Africaines joined Monaco Collectif Humanitaire with enthusiasm and energy, becoming one of its key members. Consequently, over 220 children have already been taken under the association’s wing from the creation of the medical file to the child’s recovery, including support for essential administrative procedures (delegation of parental authority, passport application, visa).
For the child’s travel arrangements, Rencontres Africaines enlists the assistance of the Association Aviation Sans Frontières and entrusts its host families with accompanying the child throughout his/her stay.
During his/her hospitalisation, the family is there with and for the child’s on a daily basis. This is followed by a convalescence period with a few check-up visits and preparation for the return home.
To date, the Association Rencontres Africaines has sponsored fifteen or so children in Senegal and Burkina Faso with the support of over 50 sponsors.
Rencontres Africaines blog : https://ensembleparrainonsles.wordpress.com/author/ensembleparrainonsles/
Questions put to Rencontres Africaines:
How is a child’s arrival organised?
First of all a medical file is obtained in order to make sure it is eligible. Then the case is submitted to the doctor and health centre concerned. If surgery is deemed possible, we then contact the family, explain the procedure for transferring the child and help them with all the administrative formalities: delegation of parental authority, passport, visa. When all the necessary documents have been established, we prepare the child’s trip. For this, we contact the Association Aviation Sans Frontières and together we decide on a date for the trip and choose the flights. Our partners then establish a “road map” which designates an “escort” who is in charge of going to pick up the child. If the family cannot afford the air ticket, we ask the Collective to cover the cost. In practice, all these formalities are accomplished very rarely without difficulty: it is commonplace for the family to be untraceable, for the issuance of the passport to take longer than expected, for the visa application not to be done in time, for the child’s health to make the trip impossible – in brief, various obstacles can arise. So we work with perseverance – and sometimes for a long time. At the same time, we will have contacted one of our host families and have made sure of their availability for the duration of the child’s stay. On the day of the trip, everything is ready and finished and we wait for the child at the airport. Throughout the child’s stay we monitor, together with the host family, the progress of treatment. Finally, when the doctor in charge informs us that the child is fit to return home to his/her country, we organise his/her return, again in cooperation with Aviation Sans Frontières.
Aviation Sans Frontières
Created in 1980 by a group of Air France pilots, Aviation Sans Frontières, a recognised public-interest association, carries out humanitarian missions among the poorest people in the heart of the developing world. It provides material resources as well as the professionalism and aeronautical expertise of its members for the benefit of humanitarian causes. Every year, ASF volunteers accompany over 1,200 seriously sick children from Africa, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia to European hospitals.
Also a partner of the United Nations and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, it conducts many missions thanks to its three Cessna Caravan aircraft based in Africa. Furthermore, ASF transports medication and small medical equipment on a day-to-day basis, escorts refugees to their host countries and France, offers aviation discovery days to young disabled or socially isolated individuals.
Since January 2008, ASF has been responsible, as part of the Monaco Collectif Humanitaire project, for transporting and accompanying all the children from their countries of origin to the Principality for surgery. 368 volunteers ensure flights to and from Nice.
Testimonials
“In Roissy, we meet the three children who are entrusted to us: Mahafoudh, 5 and a half, very upset to be leaving his host family, extremely intimated at the beginning but who quickly succumbed to the charms and kindness of the hostess on board. Bassira, 15 months, arriving from Toulouse with Serge (who helped us with check-in) and the toddler Ammar, 8 months, full of smiles… accompanied by his host family visibly extremely upset at having to let this precious little one go (thank you both for your help and kindness)”
“Sky Priority for this little girl from the Ivory Coast who dragged me towards a Christmas tree in one of the boutiques: she so wanted to open the presents under the tree…
Marie Noelle, who loves walking, walked all around terminal F three times, making other passengers laugh with her look of determination, then she found a new play area: the Air France Sky Priority gates. But when it was time to board things started to go wrong. Marie Noelle wanted nothing to do with the plane, “no, no” she said to me, and even less with the seat belt “take it off of me”. As I did not comply, she took it in turns to thump me and cry; luckily the passenger nearby had a tablet and a Paper app for drawing. Wary at the beginning of this new stranger, she was won over by the tablet and quickly understood how it worked! And of course upon arrival, she wanted to stay with me…”
La Chaîne de l’Espoir
The Chaîne de l’Espoir was founded in 1994 by Prof Alain Deloche. It is currently presided over by Dr Eric Cheysson. It takes action for children from countries whose health and education systems are deficient or inexistent.
General actions
Care: to provide surgery in France for children when the means of treating them in their own countries do not exist.
Our mission: when it is possible to perform surgery on the children locally, teams from the Chaîne de l’Espoir carry out surgical missions and provide theoretical and practical training for the local medical and paramedical staff.
Hospital projects: to rehabilitate or build and fit out hospital facilities adapted to the realities in the field, in order to give the countries the possibility to treat their children themselves and to ensure skills transfer.
Emergency intervention: to offer its expertise and networks to the victims of humanitarian disasters.
Education programmes: to promote access to education for children in need, and to develop group programmes to assist the re-entry of children into schools.
Local actions
The South East branch started its activity in 2008. Thanks to its network of doctors, host families, nurses, dentists, physiotherapists and teachers, it takes care of four to six children every year, aged between 6 and 16, chiefly from West Africa and suffering from serious rheumatic valvular heart disease. These children are operated on by Professor Gilles Dreyfus at the Monaco Cardio-Thoracic Center. The branch has signed an agreement with Monaco Collectif Humanitaire and makes a financial contribution for two in three children. Its total commitment reached 46,229 € at the end of 2012.
For further information: www.nicemonaco.machainedelespoir.org
Key figures:
- over 100,000 children benefit from health care programmes
- close to 11,000 children benefit from education programmes
- close to 5,000 children receive surgery every year in France or abroad
- 431 doctors, nurses and hospital technicians are volunteers
- a network of 300 host families involved in the Paris region and in the provinces
- close to 180 international missions are carried out every year
The Chaîne de l’Espoir is a member of the Committee on the Professional Code of Conduct (Comité de la Charte de Déontologie). In July 2012, it obtained IDEAS certification which guarantees the quality and transparency of the association in terms of governance, financial management and efficiency of its actions.
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