Scientia et Educatio Naturam Sanitatemque Emuniunt
Science and Education Preserve Nature and Health
La Science et l'Éducation Préservent la Nature et la Santé
Supporting scientific research, start-ups and/or NGOs
Action on Poverty
Project country: Uganda
Grant period: 2023 - 2024
APT Action on Poverty is a small specialist NGO with over 30 years of experience developing economic solutions to address hunger, injustice, and barriers to safe and lasting work for marginalised people. Its mission is to build sustainable livelihoods, transform lives, promote economic empowerment, and generate social change by helping vulnerable and socially excluded people achieve sustainable livelihoods, and address the barriers that limit their participation. While child labour is extremely harmful to children’s health and development, it remains very common in Uganda, especially in rural areas where, driven by poverty and food insecurity, 60% of children (5-11yrs) are involved in economic activities (UBOS, 2021). To address this issue, particularly in sugar and rice production which are particularly hazardous, Action on Poverty has launched a three-year project with its partner Platform for Labour Action (PLA) in Eastern Uganda, to protect children in over 12,000 families from child labour. Through raising awareness, training, and monitoring duty bearers (local government and private sector employers), as well as providing legal support to child labour victims, the partnership will aim to tackle the problem. Recognising that child labour is caused by poverty, it will also be working with at risk families to develop alternative livelihood opportunities, as well as supporting 1000 former child labour victims to return to school or undertake vocational training. In 2023/2024, the SENSE Foundation Brussels is supporting this project, helping to provide the necessary training and support so that vulnerable households can become more resilient, and businesses can be held accountable for child labour violations. https://aptuk.org.uk/
Chaine de l'Espoir Belgique
Project country: Benin
Grant period: 2021 - 2024
Chaîne de l’Espoir Belgium aims to improve access to quality, specialized healthcare for children in developing countries suffering from congenital diseases and defects in areas such as cardiology, orthopaedics, ENT, urology, and neurology. Working with volunteer medical and paramedical experts and NGO volunteers, Chaîne de l’Espoir Belgium supports local hospitals, trains staff and provides the necessary care, as well as medical and surgical treatment. In 2021/2022, the SENSE Foundation Brussels supported Chaîne de l’Espoir Belgium with its project to reduce locomotor disabilities in children in Benin. A multi-centric study was launched to examine rickets and the abnormally high prevalence rate of lower limb deformities in children in the country. In addition, a specific orthopaedic surgery training programme for the management of complex fractures was also conducted. Indirectly, the project benefitted more than 1000 children. In 2022/2023, the SENSE Foundation Brussels renewed its support of Chaîne de l’Espoir Belgium to continue its study into rickets and lower limb deformities in children in Benin. According to preliminary results, conservative or surgical treatments led to an improvement in most of the malformations identified in the children studied, with an almost complete correction of the deformity. It was also shown that less severe deformities could be treated immediately with non-surgical treatment (vitamin D supplementation and nutritional support). In 2023/2024, the SENSE Foundation Brussels again renewed its support of Chaîne de l’Espoir Belgium, enabling it to provide scholarships and academic enrolment support to three Beninese doctors following a paediatric surgery specialization at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Cotonou. http://www.chaine-espoir.be/
Chain of Hope Belgium aims at consolidating access and quality of specialised care for children in their native country. The goal is for local teams to acquire autonomy in caring for children suffering from pathologies requiring specialised technical operations.
SENSE Foundation Brussels’s support in 2021/2022 is contributing to a multicentric study on preventive aspects of pathologies requiring corrective orthopaedic surgeries, particularly orthopaedic deformity on children’s lower limbs likely due to vitamin D deficiency rickets causing varus or valgus.
The study may show that rickets can be reduced through the elaboration and implementation of a preventive policy on food security and nutrition in Benin, as an increasing number of children are being treated and knowledge on rickets among specialised practitioners improves.
Fondation Energies pour le Monde FONDEM (Senegal)
Created in 1990, the Fondation Energies pour le Monde (Fondem) is a public interest organisation. Fondem supports and promotes access to clean, reliable, and quality energy from local renewable sources, thereby contributing to global poverty alleviation and environmental protection. Fondem focuses its actions where electrification is most needed: rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2021/2022, SENSE Foundation Brussels is contributing to the EGALES "Egalité des Genres et Accès à l'Electricité au Sénégal" project.
Continuous decrease in rainfall in Casamance, Senegal, has led to truck-farming becoming the main activity, as an alternative to traditional rice farming. However, due to the lack of appropriate equipment and the difficulty in managing water resources, the income generated has remained scarce, and the workload, mainly supported by women, arduous. The EGALES project aims for sustainable social and economic development, by harnessing solar energy and optimizing water usage.
EGALES aims to durably improve the working conditions and the income of 600 women thanks to solar pumps and irrigation systems while training them on good farming practices and water management. It also aims to create the conditions for scaling up by testing financial mechanisms enabling women’s contribution to the production of equipment.
