In the South, Louvain Coopération is implementing numerous initiatives to combat poverty and debt. These include strategies to provide access to savings and credit. Starting out with traditional microfinance projects, Louvain Coopération has now moved more towards community microfinance. Here we take a closer look at these initiatives, which are helping to restore economic security to families.

With over 5,000 km of coastline, Madagascar has immense fishery resources. In the Menabe region, human activities and natural disasters threaten coastal ecosystems, and overfishing in certain areas is leading to a decline in fishing yields. With the support of Louvain Coopération and the Organisme Public de Coopération Intercommunale (OPCI), local communities in the Tsiribihina delta have set up temporary fishing reserves for the sustainable management of marine resources.

In Kinshasa, Louvain Coopération supports a project for the ‘Reintegration of street children into their families’. After two years of hard work, more than 1,000 young people have been rescued from the dangers of the streets. These are encouraging results, even if the challenge remains enormous.

As part of its investment in mental health, Louvain Coopération is carrying out actions aimed at reducing the incidence of gender-based violence (GBV) in three cities in Bolivia.

Since 2013, support groups have been helping victims of violence to assert their rights and find refuge in health centres or educational communities where staff responsible for GBV victims have received training.

In Burundi, the IZERE pilot project aims to improve the management of all aspects of mental health (biological, psychosocial and societal) for the populations of the municipalities of Mwumba and Kiremba, in the province of Ngozi. Through this project, Louvain Coopération aims to provide medical care for mental disorders and psychological distress, but also to promote the socio-economic reintegration of patients and change society's perception of mental health.

Many countries still stigmatise people with mental health problems and fail to provide them with any support. Yet this is a very real issue, particularly in countries in the Global South, where people face many challenges. For the past ten years, Louvain Coopération has been fighting to integrate mental health care into its countries of action and thus help thousands of people who are in deep distress.

In rural areas of Cambodia, it is not uncommon to see grandmothers caring for their grandchildren and even other children in the village in the absence of their parents. These children are commonly referred to as ‘left behind.’ Their parents have left the country or region in search of better economic opportunities. Day after day, this phenomenon is growing.

Preserving the environment has now become a priority and an urgent matter in order to ensure that all development cooperation efforts do not go to waste for future generations. Louvain Coopération wants to play an important role in achieving this goal and has been working towards it for several years. What is the point of developing a region economically if its resources, and therefore human life itself, are threatened in the long term?

Louvain Coopération's food and economic security projects focus on working with farmers to develop farming methods that guarantee their families a varied and sufficient diet, or marketing opportunities, as needed. But how can agricultural produce, which is often highly perishable, be sold quickly or stored effectively? How can the value of products be increased?

The ‘Focus on the Field’ section of your Devlop' takes you to Bolivia this time, to discover a hydroponic farming development project aimed at populations with limited access to land.