Rural Insertion Programme for the Homeless in Rural Regions

		Léonce Wing Kong, Executive Director of the Association Accueil des Sans-Abri (ASA) (Care for the homeless) Sector : Vocational Training Location : Midwest of Madagascar Local Partner : Association Accueil des Sans-Abri (ASA) (Care for the homeless) Start of Partnership : 1995

«Enable the homeless to rediscover the social cohesion necessary for their reinsertion»

“Although I am a historian, I became interested in social actions through Friar Jacques Tronchon, who is also a doctor in history, and who works on social reinsertion of homeless people.
At the beginning when I was in charge of social actions coordination, I had almost daily contacts with the families. It was through this that I understood that some sort of psychological problem was part of the cause of the downfall of these people in difficulty. So I decided to set up awareness sessions to help them rediscover the social cohesion necessary for their reinsertion. Now that I am the Executive Director of the organization, I spend a lot more time with my team deciding which strategies we should put in place in our programme for reinserting the homeless in rural environments. Nevertheless, I still have time to meet and discuss directly with the families.

«The progressive development of a rural economy in an area that was initially totally destitute of human activity»

These ten years of work with the families in situation of great difficulty have enabled me to learn a lot about them, their strong points as well as their weak ones. Together with my team, we have been able to implement tools (socio-cultural activities, training in crafts and agriculture, etc.) which enable the families to face their future and to envisage social and professional reinsertion. Several families are now accommodated in our migration area: they have their own dwelling and land for growing, the land is starting to be well laid out and, slowly but surely, the life of our new rural inhabitants is taking off. Savings schemes and community organization is also looking good with the Village Community Granary (Grenier Communautaire Villageois), Rural Inhabitants Guild (Groupement de Paysans Ruraux), etc., and lets us catch a glimpse of the slow but sure development of a rural economy in an area that was initially destitute of human activity.

«Patience, listening carefully and persuasion are essential»

Working to help families regain autonomy is not an easy thing. Patience, listening carefully and persuasion are essential. Although we have managed to stabilize the majority of families among the 2000 re-established in rural areas since the beginning of our project, we still need to make great efforts to ensure that they really recover their autonomy”.