A word from our founding president for this new school year

For more than 19 years that we live on the big island that is Madagascar, we have created my husband and myself a Chain of Solidarity, in order to come help the children whom my gaze met in the street, when I set foot for the first time on the soil of this wonderful land.

Our channel was created in 1997 to allow children living in poverty in Antananarivo the capital and its surroundings, to have access to school benches and to receive an adequate education.
Deeply touched on my arrival by the smile and kindness of the Malagasy people, but especially by the poverty of the children that I met there, I could not remain insensitive to this great misery. As I do not work, it is my who works here, I am not a husband very sincerely, to have an expatriate life with all the advantages that this entails knowing that close to me children and their families were in so much suffering. So we have my husband and I invented a new and unusual sponsorship system !!

We ask for 55 € PER YEAR and this money we redistribute to needy families, so that they can provide for the purchase of their food and thus not send the children to the streets to beg.

We have proven that if we give poor children without resources a chance it could change the course of their lives and it works !!
In total thanks to our system in place more than 4,500 children have been able to benefit from this education and as I write to you I am proud to announce that we have 14 academics who are continuing their studies successfully. With the help of people with a big heart who gave us small donations that we had collected for years, we put aside this money to make my dream come true, a big and beautiful project to create an Update Center called “Zazagasy” ( which means Malagasy children) !! The political events that we had to go through unfortunately put an end to this dream of construction; the people designated to take care of it who have left the country!

We did not give up, always with envy in our hearts and we had great happiness, to build three classrooms with a courtyard, a teachers’ room, as well as a library and an infirmary in addition to four latrines and a well with water tower by bringing our help and support to a small dilapidated school in the rural town of Ambohimanambola Antananarivo Avaradrano; this school bears the pretty name of “School of Hope” the inauguration took place on October 29, 2014 in the presence of the Mayor and local notables.

To date, we still have to furnish and stock the library.

And this summer we had a superb basketball court built !!

Here are dear people who will read me, a whole part of my life, almost 20 years that I have devoted to the poor children of Antananarivo, 9 months a year I have devoted myself body and soul to these children and their families, they are now like mine, they call me Mamie Nicky that says it all !!

The remaining three months of the year, I return to the flat country which is mine, in the Liège region where I have the great joy of finding my 4 children and my 8 grandchildren, my beautiful family and my friends, I will be in January a great-grandmother… what happiness…

I forgot to tell you that my work is completely voluntary, not a penny goes to me for all this work, my salary is the joy and the stars of happiness that I see in the eyes of my street children. For more info see our website: http://edlr.be or/www.enfants-de-la-rue.com

Thank you for taking the time to read me, I wish you a beautiful and bright day.

Yours faithfully

Nicky Van Ass