Support most vulnerable & fight against isolation

In central Madagascar, 164 km south of the capital Antananarivo, the diocese of Antsirabe (Vakinankaratra region) covers an area of 16,000 km² and brings together around 1.803 million inhabitants, more than half of whom are young people. Poverty in the region is particularly serious in this rural environment where agricultural production (rice, corn, vegetables, fruit trees) does not cover all the food needs of peasant families. In the region, the poverty level is 75.8% (INSTAT 2010), malnutrition affects 62.7% of the population, the school attendance rate is 42%. Without training, young people in the region, like all Malagasy youth, have difficulty entering the work market.

The Diocesan Caritas of Antsirabe, supported by Secours Catholique-Caritas France, always active in the fight against poverty in the region of Vakinankaratra, founded the PCS (Professional Career School) RISIKA in 1993. Approved by the Ministry of Education, Technical Education and Vocational Training, it supports young people in great difficulty in the city of Antsirabe, to get them out of the streets, feed them, educate them and give them an adequate job, through diversified vocational training courses responding to the socio-economic context of the Diocese of Antsirabe. The training period is two years for the QPT. (Qualifying Professional Training) or three years for the CPC (Certificate of professional competence).

The project aims to enable the professional integration of young people in precarious situations in the town of Antsirabe and its immediate surroundings by providing vocational training. This project comprises three linked components in the pursuit of this common objective:

1. The RISIKA center offers young people a diversified and qualifying vocational training meeting the specificity of the diocese. To carry out this support, the training provided at the Center has been restructured into two streams: basic streams (woodwork, metalwork, bicycle mechanics, sewing / embroidery, hairdressing and food processing) and additional training (agriculture, livestock, beekeeping, plumbing and electricity)
2. In addition to training, the project supports the young people of the center in their integration into their working life. With the creation of partnerships with companies in the region and the establishment of an incubation system within RISIKA, allowing the creation of a business.
3. Caritas Antsirabe has the ambition to increase its financial resources by developing its income-generating activities (IGA). It aims to set up the organization, management and working method of the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE). The proceeds from this large-scale operation will be used to expand the center and provide training.

Professional training component

For the year 2019-2020, 100 new young people were recruited in the first year against 97 planned, increasing to 149 the number of learners for the school year. In 2019, two learners dropped out of the training, bringing the drop-out rate to less than 10%.

In order to avoid a higher drop-out rate, the RISIKA center provided a daily lunch for learners, trainees and trainers. 150 young people also benefited from health insurance.

In addition, several training sessions took place for the trainers:

• Pedagogy and knowledge transfer (25 teachers)
• Business creation (7 foremen), setting up and development of an economic project. The latter's objective is to strengthen the skills of workshop managers in setting up and developing an economic project. These new skills will also improve the efficiency of their workshop in terms of performance.

Through this project, the RISIKA center distributed a toolbox (December 2019) to 63 second-year learners, in order to better support them in their professional integration. 8 bonuses (tools and small materials) were also offered to the best learners.

Professional integration component

For the year 2019, all 2nd-year learners were able to do their internship.

The follow-up activities made it possible, during the first half of 2019, to identify the hiring of 5 young people from the 2018-2019 class, one at Momotasy (bicycle mechanics workshop) and four at CFAMA (state establishment specializing in agricultural machinery. ).

During the second half of 2019, 26 other young people were able to be followed. A very large majority of them have been able to find a job in their field. Below is the detail by sector:
- Hairdressing: Out of the 8 high school graduates, 7 have found work in their field, including one who has created his own hairdressing salon.
- Couture and embroidery cut: Out of the 11 outgoing pupils, 4 do not work in the sector.
- wood work: 6 work in the wood sector and 1 works in a butcher's shop.

Regarding activities to promote self-employment "business creation" three youngs are currently in the process of creating their own workshop.

In addition, Caritas Antsirabe, is a member of the professional promotion network in Madagascar. This networking has contributed to improving the performance of the center in promoting the social integration of young people as well as in their empowerment.

Income Generating Activities

The activities promoting the self-financing of the center are promising. The opening of the "showroom" made it possible to increase income through sales (agricultural products, carpentry.) and access to services (hairdressing, restaurant etc.). In addition, Caritas Antsirabe has strengthened the marketing and sales of its products for better visibility and efficiency: 

• creation of a commercial name for “VOARY” products
• “mobile sale” of agrifood products,
• recruitment of a marketing and sales manager and an information and communication manager.

• Rapport_2020_RISIKA_global_giving.pdf (PDF)