Questions & answers

Any association under the French 1901 law, operating overseas for the general interest and committed to combat child malnutrition whichever country they work in, is welcome in the Mouvement International d’Aide à l’Enfance. 

They will be requested to agree to the Charter of the M.I.A.E and to attach to their membership application informations that will introduce them to the other member associations (moral and financial report of its latest  general assembly). The M.I.A.E’s Bureau will discuss with the association’s office in order to complete the membership.  The payment of the minimum annual contributions will materialize the membership (the fee is yearly priced during the General Assembly of the M.I.A.E). 

We welcome you, no matter how small your association is ! Especially for little associations, the M.I.A.E offers the opportunity to meet, exchange practices and build a network that will, if you want it, allow you to develop actions in collaboration with the member associations operating in the same  geographic area. 

Since its creation in 1984, the M.I.A.E has always gathered associations of  various sizes. 

So… No hesitation ! Let’s get to know each other.

Becoming a member of the M.I.A.E means to join a network, a space of dialog, of exchange of practices and advice. 

It is also the yearly meeting of the General Assembly, with its round table of the implemented activities and with team work sessions. 

As the saying goes “alone, we are faster, together, we go further”. Joining the M.I.A.E is the opportunity to open yourself to new prospects and to unite in action ! 

From our “northern” countries, in other words from the comfort of our wealthy countries, we tend to intellectualize the support to development.  For some people, the financial support of a canteen is considered as outdated and as a vestige of a now bygone age of support to development. Nowadays, we would rather support the “equipment” projects… So as to invest in “sustainability”. It doesn’t matter if the classroom we are building will not witness any competent teacher or local person in charge of its maintenance, it doesn’t matter if in a few years the building itself will crumble, stopping the possibility of offering quality education. 

Sponsors and associations will benefit from the positive image of the achievement of the construction “project”. 

 The philosophy of the M.I.A.E’s member associations is to look further than these immediate images : it is to continually commit ourselves to a local community so as to accompany them on the road to development.  A meal that will set the children free from chronic malnutrition is also in the eyes of the parents a sign to send their kids to school, instead of keeping them as  a workforce.  The children will therefore have access to education and as we all know it, education is the first step to a sustainable and autonomous local development. 

So yes indeed, the future is built on the plates we help fill up.

Mmmmh… Well… This is an authentic false good idea ! Apart from severe emergencies such as a natural disaster’s following days, donation of food is not the wisest way to help the communities we accompany. Moreover, handling emergency situations exceeds the intervention framework of our associations. The shipping cost of such donations to the other side of the world is simply disproportionate.   It is way more preferable to financially support the nutritional centers or school canteens, that the persons in charge will supply with products from local markets or to accompany the development of local crops (gardens, orchards, rice fields, chicken coops…)

A school canteen, and it is self-explanatory, is dedicated to a school. It welcomes all the school’s pupils , sometimes their teachers and school staff that (it is the case in Madagascar), benefit from the food as a top-up for their extremely low income.  

Regarding the families, they participate as much as they can to the funding of the school canteen, generally  up to 10 to 20% of the maximum cost of the meals. They sometimes also provide in-kind contribution (rice or wood provision for cooking…)

The school canteen represents a major factor for the good attendance of the students (the parents being aware that their kid will benefit from a balanced meal make sure that their kid do go to school) and therefore for the quality of their studies. 

As early as a school canteen’s first year, the impact on the student’s school results can easily be observable.

A Nutritional Center is not part of a school. It rather aims to welcome children from the most precarious families. The children are generally among the youngest (between 5 and 13 years old). The children’s headcount is overall less important than in school canteens. They may or may not be schooled. 

The nutritional center’s supervisors often try to develop pedagogical activities and animations over mealtime, or even try to develop a literacy center. If it is the case, depending on the local situation and on the presence of an educational institution or the lack thereof, the literacy center can take the first step to building a school… The nutritional center can the become a school canteen. 

The families of the nutritional center’s welcomed children do not financially participate in the costs of their kids’ meals, but they may have to participate in the activities (serving, cooking, cleaning…).

The individual and collective commitment through an association is the enabler of our actions with children in need that we accompany, from the coasts of the Indian Ocean to the Latin American mountains.  Your donation can take various forms :  

– of course a financial donation, that you can directly give to the members associations via their websites, or directly to the M.I.A.E via the HelloAsso platform 

– a gift of your time by going out on the field of action of the associations, or in France to help our teams. In that case, we invite you to volunteer through the contact form and we will orient your application depending on your skills, availability and projects.

– any other kind of donation :  The talents of your theater club or of your orchestra, the will of your sports club to launch a solidarity race, of your company to get rid of hardware… Contact us ! We will help you to define the best way we can put your generosity to good use !

The in situ missions are set up within the framework of our member associations. You can directly contact them or volunteer through the contact form. We will then hand over your application to the associations. 

It is also possible to get involved in a mission that concerns the centers of several member associations. We encourage you to check our mission offers.