2025 - 2026
Standing alongside the poorest
Approach
ATD Quart Monde begins by building trust and long-term relationships with the families concerned. Mobile street libraries serve as accessible meeting places. At the Antohomadinika library, children receive support with their schoolwork and can take part in educational and cultural activities. Teenagers and young adults are supported in their career guidance and integration. Walks to other neighbourhoods open up new perspectives on possible educational, career and life paths.
Impact
The project reaches around 500 direct participants and 22,000 people indirectly affected, such as relatives and family members. It enhances educational opportunities, self-confidence and social participation. In this way, ATD Quart Monde helps to overcome exclusion and create better long-term living and income opportunities for people living in extreme poverty.
Partner
Story
The story of Nôrine
In 2025, we got to know Nôrine better, a young mother of two who lives in a shantytown next to a garbage dump. She is illiterate and, like so many other women, weaves doormats from fabric scraps and collected plastic at home. Most of the women in the neighborhood live from this work, which, at best, is just enough to buy the rice for the day, the staple of the Malagasy diet.
Initially rather hesitant and skeptical of our suggestion to participate in training at the MMM workshop (Learning and Continuing Education Together) , Nôrine was willing to "drop by" on an open day. "At first, I was really discouraged by the idea of contacting you [the ATD staff]. I tried to avoid you… And then the pig I had raised died: I had wasted time without gaining the slightest thing! So I finally changed my mind and decided to come by anyway. Without you, I would have been lost: I couldn't read or write, I didn't have an ID card, I had even given up hope of ever getting one. […]"
Because of these circumstances, Nôrine eventually joined the MMM workshop, along with a new group of craftswomen – all mothers in a similar situation – who could specialize in either industrial sewing, raffia crochet, or cooking, in order to offer their products mostly through home sales or street sales.
After specializing in crochet, she managed, after six months of training, to offer her products to a local company known for its high-quality ready-to-wear clothing. During the first few months of her apprenticeship, she needed financial support and encouragement to persevere, as the demands in the workshop are high: a piece has to be remade as many times as necessary until it's perfect! Today, Nôrine herself sets high standards for the quality of her work.
Reflecting on her beginnings, she says: "I've always told myself that life is a constant learning process. Knowledge always has value. That's why I decided to continue my education and expand my skills whenever the opportunity arises. Even if the benefits aren't immediately apparent, it will serve me well in the future. I hope to be able to establish a training center later on when I return to my hometown."
Even if not all of the female craftswomen's careers are as "successful" as Nôrine's, the personal development of each individual is often noticeable and no less important.
Images © ATD Quart Monde Madagascar
Vision
To overcome poverty and exclusion and enable human dignity – through education, social participation and access to decent work.
Description
ATD Quart Monde supports children, young people and adults in the Antohomadinika and Andramiarana districts of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar.
The majority of the children do not attend school or have dropped out, leading them into ‘survival jobs’ like those of their parents. As scavengers on rubbish heaps, they face increased health risks and are socially marginalised.