Description

The socio-sporting school is located on the southwest coast of Madagascar in the centre of the urban community of Tulear, the country’s second city and capital of the Atsimo Andrefana region, 936km from Antananarivo. This is a largely rural area marked by low life expectancy and low rates of school attendance.

In this environment lacking in opportunities and resources for infants, the Agua de Coco Foundation and their local partner, the NGO Bel Avenir, have developed a social-education project for vulnerable young people built on three key areas: the fight against child labour, the promotion of access to education, and healthcare and nutritional support. To this end the NGO has set up two nutritional education centres and one social shelter for young girls.

The socio-sporting school sits in this framework as a unique means for promoting the teaching of values through sport. The beneficiaries of the school are boys and girls from the city who participate in the Agua de Coco’s social programme and who find themselves with health and nutritional problems, are underachieving at school or not attending at all. They come from vulnerable family backgrounds (single-parent families, those with increased family responsibilities, families suffering employment instability etc.) and who show real motivation to participate in the programme. Aside from the sporting elements, the attendees also receive educational activities such as film showings, workshops on the environment, hygiene and health which the families are also invited to participate in.