Has the COTM’s action adapted to the situation? How do donations and sponsorships help families today?
The sponsorships are distributed to the families, directly or through third parties. This is done hand to hand or through a basic banking system (the people go to stores to get their money). This helps them to live or survive on a daily basis; the price of food, petrol, internet, has more than doubled or tripled.
Since the beginning of March 2022, seeing that the conflict will last, we encourage the managers to organise alternative courses in villages, the households that can, and the refugee camps. The sponsorships and the donations allow compensation to the teachers, many of whom are on strike and have been dismissed from the national education system. We thus support, on top of the sponsored children, more than 6000 children in different regions, so that they can continue to study despite the circumstances. The managers are very involved in these projects. They want the young to be able to continue to study and not be doubly penalised by this political crisis.